


Crush

by M_Mary93



Category: SEAL Team (TV)
Genre: Crush, Crush Injury, Emergency - Freeform, First Aid, Hurt, Injury, h/c, ortho - Freeform, orthopedic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-10
Updated: 2020-11-30
Packaged: 2021-03-06 20:21:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 45
Words: 42,699
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26394814
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/M_Mary93/pseuds/M_Mary93
Summary: While on an OP, things go sideways and Full Metal gets injured.
Comments: 126
Kudos: 137





	1. Crush

**Author's Note:**

> So, I recently fell into yet another wormhole and binged the first two seasons of SEAL team in less time than I should have used to watch it. I figured out a few things:  
> 1\. This show is freaking awesome once you get your bearings.  
> 2\. Sonny is cool, I dig him.  
> 3\. I love Full Metal (Like seriously, what a highly qualified dork!)  
> And 4. There is NOT ENOUGH Scott Carter (Full Metal) fanfiction.  
> Oh, and as some of you MIGHT know… I’m too hung up on H/C and whump…
> 
> Also, I couldn't really figure out if I should go by strict radio etiquette or just throw it out the window.  
> Guess I threw it out.

You forget to be scared after a while. That was the truth for some of them at least. The problem wasn’t when you were neck deep in a FUBAR situation, it was when you were trying to get some shut-eye at home in your own bed. You took a deep breath and pushed the fear down and moved on.

But one thing was for sure, life had an impeccable way of telling you to take a breather every once in a while. Nature’s way of telling you to slow down a bit. A sucking chest wound, an arterial bleed, blood loss, a massive concussion. You know, stuff like that.

He tried getting his bearings as the dust settled. Last thing he remembered was someone yelling ‘incoming’ and diving for cover.

His sight was blurred and all sound seemed warped. His ears was ringing and his head was spinning, but it was nothing compared to the immense pain that was his left leg.

He forced himself up on his elbows, positive he was going to hurl as the world tilted on its axis. The sight that met him didn’t help too much.

One of the concrete walls had caved and landed on his leg. He barely stopped himself from trying to tug his leg free, he knew damn well it wouldn’t budge and all that would happen was that the pain would tenfold and he would probably do more damage to his leg than there already was.

Blood was soaking his tactical pants right above where the concrete block ended. First thing needing to happen was a tourniquet, then he had to get that thing off of his leg.

He barely noticed Bravo 1 ordering a radio check and sit rep before the fifth time he called him up by his nickname.

“Yeah. I’m here. Hear you Lima Charlie.” He sucked some air through his teeth, “My leg’s stuck under some rubble. Think I busted it.”

“Do you need assistance getting loose?”

“A-firm.” he took a second look at the bloody mess under the block of concrete, “Gonna need a tourniquet and help moving as well.”

“Okay, you’ve got it.” Jason paused, “Bravo 4, this is Bravo 1, you’re closest to Full Metal. Can you get to him? Out.”

“Bravo 1, Bravo 4. Sure can! Out.”

* * *

“Oh, damn…” Trent grumbled as soon as he had a visual on Full Metal, “How bad is it brother?”

“Think my leg is crushed.”

“Actual crushed?”

“Worse than just a break…” Metal gave a minimal shrug, but the pain written all over his features spoke volumes, “Hurts like hell.”

Trent nodded as he sat down beside Full Metal. “Tourniquet first. Then we’ll figure out how to move this.”

Full Metal nodded a bit, “I will be of minimal help during that part of this OP.”

“What? When we’re moving the block of concrete?”

He grimaced, “Something tells me whatever pain I’m experiencing right now is just a taste test of what’s to come once the initial shock wears off and my leg actually gets jostled.”

“I think you might be right, buddy.” Trent nodded, “You might want to administer at least 10mg of morphine before we start.”

“Already did.” Metal answered and reached for the spent auto-injector pen in order to wave it around and show it to Trent.

“Is it enough?” he asked as he dug a tourniquet out of his gear.

“Look at my leg. What do you think?” Full Metal growled, “Not gonna take anymore just yet, I’m gonna need it later as well.”

“Pretty sure the rest of us will be willing to share ours.”

“I don’t want to take so much one of you will actually have to keep an eye on me, to monitor for overdose.”

“I think you’re big enough to handle 20mg of morphine.” Trent shrugged as he leaned forward in order to wrap the tourniquet around Full Metal’s thigh, “This is gonna hurt…”

Full Metal nodded and placed his gloved knuckled between his teeth.

Trent wasn’t surprised when Full Metal suddenly went lax. He didn’t know the full extent of his injury, but one thing was for sure, it had to be painful as all hell. Full Metal wasn’t exactly one to fuzz over nothing, actually, he wasn’t one to fuzz over anything as far as Trent knew him. And syncope was a natural response to pain.

“Bravo 1, this is Bravo 4. We need additional manpower here to get Full Metal loose. Out.”

“Bravo 4, good copy. You think you’ll get him loose if Bravo 2 and 3 join up?”

Trent looked over the rubble and Full Metal, “Might need more. I estimate this block of concrete weighs 2.5 metric tons. We also need someone to drag Full Metal free once we’ve got that weight off his leg. He passed out when I put on the TQ. Think he’s coming back around now…”

“Okay, Bravo 5 you keep watch on the south corner, alert us of any movement south or east. The rest of us, help Bravo 4.”

The confirmations came in one after another.

“Havoc, this is Bravo 1. We are forced to divert from our plan, please alert us of any movement close to our position. Out.”

“Bravo 1, Good copy. Do you need anything else? Out.”

“Might need medevac. Out.”

“Site is considered a hot-zone. Is it critical? Out?”

“Haven’t got eyes on yet. Stand by for further information. Out.”

* * *

Clay, Sonny, Ray and Jason managed to lift the concrete block enough for Trent to pull Full Metal out from under it. None of them surprised when the big guy passed out for a second time.

The guys let go of the slab and it fell down, resting on some other rubble 3 or 4 inches off the ground.

“Let’s try to check and stabilize his leg while he’s still unconscious.” Trent called out as he started cutting away at the fabric of Full Metal’s pants. “Clay, find quickclot combat gauze, tape and regular gauze. Sonny, find cravats or anything that can be used to splint his left leg against his right leg. Jason and Ray, anything that can be used as cushioning between his legs and between his left leg and the cravats.”

They all hurried to their tasks.

“How does it look?”

“Open fracture above his ankle and below his knee. Multiple deformities from knee down. Lots of soft tissue damage. He needs to get proper medical attention, he’s at high risk for crush syndrome.” Trent rattled off as he took the things Clay handed him, “Clay, can you find Sodium Bicarbonate, a peripheral IV line and a FAST1.”

“Sodium Bicarb, peripheral IV line and FAST1.” Clay nodded, “Got it.”

* * *

He woke up to one of Trent’s thighs on each side of his head, not exactly his favorite position.

“Heya buddy, really hoped you would be out for 30 seconds more…” his teammate winked down at him. “I’m just gonna place a FAST1. Already have an orange IV running in your left arm. How are you feeling?”

“-Like I got run over by a wall.” Full Metal answered, trying to mask a grimace, “How’s my leg?”

“Crush injury, like you predicted. You’ve still got a pulse distal to most of the injuries, if you wondered about that. Have sodium bicarb trickling into that IV you have in your arm. We’re waiting for medevac, tricky situation with this still being a hot-zone.”

Metal nodded, “But I guess you think I need it?”

Trent nodded, “The sooner the better. But, I also think you could handle a couple of hours delay. I just want to avoid that if possible. We managed to cover the worst gashes and stabilize your left leg against your right while you were out of it.”

Full Metal nodded a bit, taking in the information. “So. Crush injury. Muscle mass gets damaged, releases toxins. Clogs up kidneys. Renal failure. Am I right?” Full Metal met Trent’s eyes.

“Kinda. But that’s what the sodium bicarb is for.” Trent winked, “That, and they’ll probably load you up with saline once medevac gets here. How’s your pain?”

“Way too damn high.” he rolled his eyes a little, “7, I guess.”

“I’d guess 8 or 9…” Trent shrugged, “You passed out. Twice.”

“Probably won’t be the last time either.”

Trent nodded, “But, just looking at you and listening to you. I’d guess about a 4.”

“That’s why we call him Full Metal…” Sonny winked as he came into Metal’s view as well, “Seriously man, you are allowed to show that this hurts. I would’ve sounded like an air-raid alert. How are ya?”

Full Metal shook his head a bit, “Not good.”

“Maybe you should take that second injector…” Trent said as he readied the FAST1 introducer, “No need for you to suffer more than necessary.”

“You said it yourself. This is still a hot-zone. Medevac has unknown ETA.” Full Metal swallowed hard, “Might be here in 15 mikes, might take 6 hours. Or more. Have to save some for later.”

“We’ve got plenty.” Sonny said as he squeezed his shoulder, “You’re in pain. A lot of it.”

“I’m nauseous enough already.” Full Metal shot back, “Can’t remember morphine helping any in that department.”

“No, but it’ll help with the pain. And that might ease nausea.” Trent quipped back as he placed the introducer against Full Metal’s skin, “Ready?”

He got a short nod in return and pushed the introducer down.

The operator on the ground let out a single expletive and gritted his teeth.

“Sorry about that…”

“We’re good.” Full Metal nodded and held his fist up for Trent to bump it.

All of the sudden their earpieces buzzed on, “Bravo team, this is Havoc. Looks like we’ve a group of 4, potentially 5, Tango’s headed your way in a pickup with a mounted machine gun.”

Jason replied. The guys got their orders and quickly followed through.

“Bravo 1, this is Bravo 5, I have eyes on the pickup. Should I engage? Out.”

* * *

By the time Trent, Sonny and Clay had carried Full Metal to safety, the building they were in was once again taking heavy fire.

This time, Full Metal hadn’t passed out due to pain from being jostled. Probably because the injection had been given the time to reach full effect.

“You think you’ll be okay down here by yourself?” Sonny asked as he helped Metal lean up against his backpack.

Full Metal nodded slightly, his eyes squeezed closed as he prayed for the pain to pass.

“Hey, Full Metal…”

“Yeah?”

“Are you going to be okay down here by yourself?”

He nodded a bit more, “Yeah. As soon as I stop feeling like I’m gonna pass out.”

“Do you want me to stay here with you?” Sonny asked, “Or Clay, or Trent…”

“No-NO…” Full Metal shook his head, “I’m a big boy. Can take care of myself.”

Trent raised an eyebrow, “Alright, big boy… Just radio if you change your mind.”

Full Metal raised his thumb in order to show that the message was received and understood.


	2. It's morphine time!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Full Metal wakes up in the post-op ward at the hospital.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Also: The chapter title is thanks to a classmate of mine.   
> Where I have a STRONG fascination of all things skeletal, he loves anesthesia. Particularly morphine.  
> (Not like he wants to try it out himself, but he loves administering it.)
> 
> And during our last clinical rotation we met in the med room, I was sent in there to grab some pills and he was standing there with syringes and a shit eating grin. Doing his best paraphrased powerranger immitation: "It's MORPHINE TIME!"

Too many hours later, he had been carried out to the waiting chopper. This time on an actual stretcher which made the journey slightly less excruciating. The paramedics or whatever had given him more morphine, or fentanyl or something. He didn’t complain, he didn’t have to be able to protect himself, or ration his auto-injectors. After that, he didn’t remember much before he woke from surgery.

* * *

He was relieved to see that some sort of shape continued where his leg was supposed to go. At least he hadn’t joined the ‘some-assembly-required’ squad yet. But he didn’t like that the pain was constant, even though he had just woken up, nor did he want to settle with the amount of pain he was experiencing.

He managed to get the attention of one of the post-op/ICU nurses.

“Hey there…” she smiled at him, “Anything I can help you with?”

“Can I get something for the pain?” any other circumstance and he would have played the tough-strong-SEALoperator card, maybe offer up a pick-up line, but the pain was close to breaking him. “Or am I maxed out?”

“You’re in pain?”

“Yeah.” He nodded, “Lots. Solid 8, at least.”

“I’ll go check.” The nurse nodded, “Just a moment.”

He nodded.

* * *

A few moments later, she came back with two syringes filled with clear liquid. One of them had a red cap on the end and a sticker taped on it. The other one had a white, shorter, cap. “How does a dose of IV morphine sound?”

“All for it!”

The nurse offered up a gentle smile as she stepped closer and unscrewed one of the caps on the three-way valve. Then she took the cap off the syringe with white cap and twisted it on the valve.

“Just have to flush the line first.” she informed as she opened up the valve and started flushing the line, “Feel any pressure or pain when I do this?”

“No, just feels cold.”

“That’s okay.” The nurse nodded, “But your skin feels a little cold, do you freeze or are you staying warm enough?”

“Not much. Probably just the blood loss.”

She nodded, “Do you want me to find an extra blanket for you?”

“Could you?”

She nodded, “I’ll do that once I’m done with this.”

He nodded.

When about half of the saline inside the syringe was gone, she twisted the valve again and removed the saline syringe and placed it on the bedside table. Then she reached for the morphine syringe, twisted the red cap off and twisted it onto the port. Then she opened the valve and slowly started to push the morphine a little by little.

“So, Scott. It was a pretty impressive injury you came in with…”

He huffed a laugh, “Yeah. Apparently, I don’t do anything half-assed.”

“No, I wouldn’t say…” the nurse winked, “Can I ask how you managed it?”

“Haven’t had time to read up on me yet?”

“No.” she admitted, “Shift started five minutes ago. You managed to catch me before I even got over to the nurse’s station.”

“Sorry.”

“Don’t be…” She chuckled as she gave the plunger another little push before letting it rest a little, repeating the push and pause cycle every 15 to 30 seconds. 

He nodded a little, “Well, I’m a soldier. Had a close call with an RPG. And a concrete wall fell on my leg.”

“Ouch…”

He nodded, “Ouch is right. So, you’re not from around here. Your American is way too perfect for that.”

She chuckled, “No, but my parents are both from this area. Moved to the states before I was born, and I grew up in Colorado.”

“Colorado’s a nice place. What made you decide to move halfway across the world?”

“I moved here because I was guaranteed to get experience with trauma cases. I’ve been here for eleven years now, because this has just the right pace for me.”

“Must be a pretty high pace.”

She nodded, “I work both here in post op, and in the ER. So, it’s fast paced some of the time at least.”

He nodded.

“How’s your pain now?”

“Better.” he nodded, “Still not good, but I’m not about to break down because of it.”

“That’s good.” She smiled, “Scale from 1 to 10?”

“5…” he shrugged a little, “Can ignore it, but can’t really relax.”

“We’ll go for a couple more milligrams then.”

“Thank you.”

“Must’ve scared your team mates a bit, huh?”

He shrugged a bit, “Yeah, guess so…”

“So, are you looking forward to go home for a spell, or?”

He shook his head, “No. I’m too damaged for home-life. I need the action and adrenaline to function.”

“Like many other career military…”

“Hey, haven’t decided on making a career out of it yet…” he smirked.

“No?” she raised her eyebrows, “You’re not exactly fresh out of high school.”

“Just a bad joke which runs in my team.” He shrugged, “Many of us has been in for 15-20 years.”

She chuckled a bit, “So, about that pain…”

“Still notice it, but it’s okay.” He shrugged.

“Annoying?”

“A little.” He admitted, “Call it a 3 or something.”

She nodded, “Feel like you can relax?”

“Yeah. I don’t feel tense anymore.”

“That’s good.” She gave the plunger a little push, the last quarter of a milliliter up to the next whole number, “Think we’ll call this good, and then you just let me know if you need more?”

He nodded, “Thank you.”

“No problem.” She smiled back, as she twisted the valve shut, picked up the red cap and unscrewed the syringe of morphine, replaced the red cap, placed the syringe on the table and picked up the saline one to flush the line. She hooked it on, opened the valve, flushed the line, shut the valve, discarded the empty saline flush and put on a new cap on the three way valve. “I’ll go write the morphine into our charting program, you need anything you use the call cord, okay? And I’ll be by with that blanket in a couple of minutes.”

“Copy that.” He nodded.


	3. Ex-Fix

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Full Metal is transferred to the orthopedic ward, and gets to see his leg properly for the first time since the injury.

The next morning they transferred him from the post-op ICU ward and down to the regular orthopedic ward. He could never remember staying that long in post-op, but then again his leg injury was a little out of the ordinary.

He was greeted by a tall, slender, local looking nurse. In heavily accented English she informed him that the nurse assigned to him would be by in a moment. He nodded.

* * *

The nurse that entered his room a few minutes later was the visual opposite of the nurse who had met him as the orderly rolled him into his new room.

Tall was replaced by short, slender by stocky. She looked more like she belonged in the suburbs of LA than in a hospital in the middle east. Instead of a wrap around her head, she had long brown hair tossed up in a messy bun on top of her head, but the friendly smile was just as warm.

“Hi Mr, Carter, I’m Emily. I’ll be the nurse you’re going to see the most of this shift.” She smiled at him as she stepped closer with a machine to measure his blood pressure and other vital signs in tow, “How are you feeling? I read they gave you some morphine before moving you from post-op…”

“Just call me Scott…” He smiled back at her, “And yeah, they did.”

“And it’s got a good effect on the pain you was in?”

He nodded, “Yeah, right now I can’t complain.”

“That’s great!” she nodded a little, then she looked over at Full Metal’s legs.

He followed her gaze.

“I read that it was a pretty bad set of injuries you sustained.”

He nodded, “Yeah. I probably outdid myself this time.”

She nodded, then she pulled the blood pressure machine a bit closer. “So, you’ve probably met this machine before.”

He nodded and stretched out his left arm so securing the BP cuff would be easier for her. “Yeah. Not my first time in a hospital bed.”

She nodded as she wrapped the cuff around his upper arm. Then she found a small gadget and put it on one of the fingers on Full Metal’s opposite hand.

She quickly did the whole assessment and jotted down some notes on a piece of paper she pulled out of her pocket. Then she looked back at where his legs laid covered. “Okay, Scott… I have to check your bandages as well. I promise to be as careful as possible, but just let me know if I cause you any discomfort. Okay?”

He nodded.

“Have you seen your leg after the surgery?”

“No. I haven’t.” he shook his head, “Didn’t feel ready for it yesterday.”

She nodded, “If you want to look away that’s completely fine.”

He nodded again, “Yeah, but I have to see it sometime, don’t I?”

She shrugged, “Yeah, but you don’t have to right now, if you don’t want to.”

He shrugged a little, “I think I’m ready for it.”

“Okay, but if it becomes too much and you need to look away, that’s very understandable.”

He nodded.

She stepped closer to his legs. She grabbed a hold of the duvet. Slowly and carefully she lifted it up and over his left leg, revealing it.

There was pins sticking into the top of his thigh and shin, connected by a metal rod. Most of the bandages were partially soaked through, one or two of them were almost dry. The parts of his shin that wasn’t covered by bandages had a deep bruised color.

He sucked a breath, “Looks nasty.”

She shrugged, “But considering what you went through, it’s looking better than expected.”

“Yeah?”

“Looks as healthy as it can get in this state.” She nodded and looked at his foot. “I’m sorry, I have to check for a pulse. It’ll probably not be a pleasant experience for you.”

He nodded, “Go ahead.”

She apologized when he flinched a muttered a curse word, “At least you’ve got a good and strong pulse there.”

“Yeah?”

She nodded, “-and none of your bandages need changing.”

“That’s good.”

She nodded, as she gently packed the duvet back over his leg. “Any questions you think I might be able to answer?”

“I heard something about a second surgery…?”

She nodded, “Yeah, that’s the plan. We don’t know yet if that is going to happen here or after you ship home stateside, but they want to put you in a larger ex-fix system.”

“Ex-fix?”

“External Fixation. Those metal pins that goes into your leg to secure your bones.” She nodded along, “But they wanted to wait a bit since the risk of infection is pretty high with all of those wounds you’ve got. But they couldn’t put you in a cast because of the swelling and because we need to check on your bandages every now and then. And they couldn’t do nothing about it either, so they decided on fixating your leg with the bare minimum of pins at first.”

He nodded, “Figured those four pins seemed a bit scarce to fix all of the breaks in my leg.”

She nodded, “Anything else?”

“No, ma’am.” He shook his head, and sighed. “Well, actually… Visitors are allowed here, right?”

She nodded, “And your teammates have already called to make sure it’s okay that they come.”

“Yeah?”

She chuckled, “Yeah. We told them that it’s okay, as long as you feel well enough to have visitors, and that due to your injuries you might need more peace and quiet than normally.”

He flashed a grin, “Good.”

“They said they would come by later, unless you requested that they didn’t.”

“No, I want them here.” Full Metal shrugged a little, “Hopefully they’ll bring something to pass the time with as well.”

She nodded, “If not, then maybe they can bring something the next time they stop by.”

He nodded.

She offered up a soft smile, “Now, breakfast is just around the corner. Are you hungry?”

“Yeah.” he nodded, “Very.”

“What would you like, we have…” she stalled a bit as she tried to remember this morning’s specialties.

“Just pick something for me, I can eat just about anything.” He chuckled a little, “But coffee, that’s the important part. Black, no sugar.”

She chuckled, “Alright. Any milk or juice to drink?”

“A glass of milk would be good. And a glass of water if that’s possible.”

She nodded, “I’ll come by with that as soon as the kitchen is ready. Might take a few minutes.”

He nodded, “Thank you.”


	4. Dog-tired

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The team visits Full Metal in the hospital.

There was a knock at the door around a quarter past 10. “Yeah, come in!”

The door opened and the entire Bravo team filed in.

Trent was first in, and walked straight over to him. He squeezed his shoulder before he leaned down for a quick hug. Full Metal wasn’t exactly a hugger, but in certain circumstances he too needed it. “How are you doing brother?”

“Better than last time you saw me.” Metal shrugged, “Still not remotely good though.”

“Had me scared there for a minute.” Trent admitted before he let the rest of the guys get close enough to greet him as well. They alternated between hugs and fist bumps.

“Yeah, well… Gotta do something to spice things up in this group of misfits.” Full Metal deadpanned.

“How’s the…” Sonny asked as he gestured weakly to Metal’s leg.

“Not good.” He admitted and shook his head, “But still attached. So that’s something.”

Sonny nodded, paling just a little.

“They put it in the same thing they had Trent’s arm in years ago…” Metal followed up, “Gonna need another surgery to get a bigger version put on, but they decided it was best to wait a bit. Risk of infection and all that.”

Trent frowned, “Yeah, I thought you’d end up in something like that.”

Full Metal nodded.

Clay nodded a little as well, then he spoke up, “Well, since you ended up here the rest of us engaged our eight collective braincells to make a Full Metal care package out of the stuff we could find.”

“8?” Metal chuckled, “At least one of you claim an extra braincell in that calculation.”

Clay chuckled, “Probably. Anyway, we brought a box of dip for you, some various candy we had, your cellphone and charger, Brock’s tablet, a book… Stuff like that.”

“Thanks.” Metal grinned.

“Yeah, was considering to toss a couple of beers in there, but that wouldn’t go well with the feelgood juice they’re pumping into ya…” Sonny shrugged.

“Probably not.” Full Metal chuckled, “Thanks anyway.”

Clay grinned as he placed the bag on the bedside table, “Should be easy to reach here.”

Metal nodded, “Yeah, thanks.”

* * *

“So… Got anyone taking care of you when you get home?” Brock asked after a while, looking up at Full Metal. They had talked about everything and nothing for quite a while, and he figured it was time to pull out the hard questions.

Metal sighed, “Thought about calling my parents, or my sister. ”

“Sounds like a big ‘but’ coming up next.” Sonny pressed.

“Yeah…” Metal dragged, “I can’t expect mom and dad to help me. They’re old. And Amy, she’s… She’s got three kids, and both her and her husband works full time. But, I’ll be okay. I think I’ll be able to take care of my own once I’m done with the surgeries and discharged.”

“Well, I call BS.” Sonny rolled his eyes, “This is one time you’re not allowed to try to get by on your own, without help.”

Ray nodded, “Yeah, Sonny’s right. You don’t get to do that, you’re gonna be in a lot of pain for a long time, and you’re going to need rest. I called Naima, she’ll be by and make sure you get at least one warm meal a day.”

“-And readymade sandwiches.” Clay smiled, “She’ll probably stock your fridge or a cooler by your couch with that as well. And Stella offered to come over and tidy a bit every now and then, take out the trash and stuff… At least until the rest of us ship back home.”

Full Metal nodded a little, “Can you thank your little ladies for me?”

Ray and Clay nodded.

He then folded his arms over his chest, tapping the fingers of his left hand against his right elbow, “Man, this… It’s gonna be a long and hard journey if I make it back.”

They all nodded a little.

“Hey, one day at a time.” Clay shrugged, “Only way to get there.”

“Yeah…” Trent agreed, absentmindedly rubbing a hand against the impressive scar near his elbow, “One day at a time, and it’ll take the time it takes.”

“You do know I probably won’t make it back?” Full Metal’s almost grey eyes met Trent’s, then Clay’s, a strand of despair audible in his voice. “I’ll be lucky if I ever jog again. Or even walk without a limp.”

“Hey. It’s bad. We know it.” Ray shot in, “We all know that. But, let’s not take our sorrows up front.”

“Ray’s got a point.” Sonny shrugged, “It’s bad, but… You’re you…”

Metal offered up a grunt and a shrug, before he reached for the bag Clay had placed on his nightstand, he reached in and pulled out a can of dip. He packed the can, then scooped out a sizable portion to put under his lip. “Well, let’s hope you’re right.”

Sonny nodded, the others did as well.

“Look guys, I’m sorry. I don’t mean to be such a depressing person right now.” He sighed, “But all of this painkiller and busted up leg combo, I don’t know how to grasp it yet.”

“That’s… That’s alright…” Jason shrugged, “You’re dealing with it way better than most of us would have.”

“Yeah, I’d be a cryin’ mess already.” Sonny offered up, “-And I’m talking ugly cryin’… Tears and snot all mixed up. Red puffy eyes, the whole nine yards.”

Full Metal chortled, “Yeah… I can imagine.”

“Like REAL ugly cryin’…” Sonny winked.

Metal nodded a little, then his gaze fell on where his left foot was hidden under the covers. He swallowed and laid his head back against the pillow, just staring up at the wall for a moment. A short chuckle rolled off of him, “Those three flights of stairs at home is going to feel like Mount Everest when I get home.”

“Sure is.” Clay nodded, remembering how his own injury had drained him.

They all fell silent once more. All of them worried about how the future would pan out.

A few minutes later Jason cleared his voice, “You look tired. We’ve been here for a couple of hours already. What do you need right now? Rest or company?”

He shrugged a little, “Look, I’m dog-tired…”

Jason nodded, “How about we leave and come back tomorrow?”

Metal nodded a little, “I’d appreciate that. Thanks.”

Jason nodded and looked around at the other guys, a silent order to get ready to leave. “Do you need anything while we’re here?”

Metal shook his head a bit, “Nah, got my dip and a call cord… I’ll get by.”

The rest of the guys nodded.

“See you tomorrow.” Ray nodded.

Metal nodded, “Yeah, and thanks for stopping by.”


	5. Worry

He grimaced as another wave of pain rolled through his leg, this time centered near his knee. It was the type of pain which made it hard to breathe properly.

He gritted his teeth. He wanted to pull the call cord, he wanted to ask for more morphine. But it wasn’t that long since the last time he did so.

He glared down at his injured leg, then glanced over at the red call cord which had slipped off his bedside table and now just hung from the wall on the opposite side of it.

He lifted the covers and looked down at his leg. The bruising was ridiculous, the swelling was too. Obviously it didn’t matter that his leg was elevated on a mountain of pillows. 

As a last ditch effort, he started massaging the area between his thumb and index finger. No surprise, but it didn’t help.

Grumbling a little, he caved in, and reached for the red cord.

“Ooop! Bad mistake.” He winced, his left hand darting down to steady his hip. That was about as close to his injury he dared to touch.

For his next attempt, he held onto the bed railing on the opposite side of where he was leaning to. He reached the red cord and pulled it, before securing it with the book which had been in the care package the team had brought him. 

* * *

A few minutes later the nurse entered his room.

“Anything I can help you with?” he didn’t have time to answer before she answered herself, “You look like you’re in pain again.”

He nodded, trying to relax his expression. “Can you do something about that?”

“I have to check with the med list, but I’ll come by with something if it’s already set up. If don’t, I’ll track down a doctor and do my best to force him to prescribe some more.”

“Thanks.” He grimaced and pressed his eyes shut.

* * *

She studied him for a little after the meds were in. “Is that better?”

She knew what his answer was going to be before she asked. He looked way more relaxed, pain wasn’t written all across his face, his breathing wasn’t strained.

“Yeah. Much better.”

She nodded, “I’m going to take another look at your leg, are you ready for that?”

He nodded a little again, “Think I’ll let you do all the looking this time.”

“That’s alright.” She smiled back.

“Could you adjust the pillows a bit as well?” he asked, “I think my leg laid better earlier today.”

She nodded, “Think I might need some assistance from a coworker then, but sure. We want you to be as comfortable as possible.”

He offered up a smile. 

“I’ll just take a quick glance at your leg first, then I’ll go get another nurse to help me with your leg.”

“Super.”

She winked and lifted the layers of fabric which covered his leg and the metal contraption poking into his leg.

“Looks good, you haven’t bled any more after I checked on you at the start of the shift.”

“Well, that’s good.” He offered up a satisfied smirk, “How’s the pulse?”

“I’ll check right away, are you prepared?”

“Think so…”

She placed a couple of fingers along where one of his arteries ran. This time he didn’t flinch much. “Good. Strong and steady. And your foot has a good temperature.”

“Good.” He smiled.

* * *

He couldn’t keep his eyes away when nurse Emily and the other nurse worked together in order to find a better position for his leg.

The contraption held his leg in one position and one position only, but the pillows supporting his leg had deflated throughout the day and that seemed to put a strain on his leg.

It was weird watching the nurse lift his leg by the frame. He was impressed by how well she held it, he had honestly expected more pain. But then again, maybe it had some correlation with the fact that he just had gotten some of what Sonny had referred to as ‘feelgood juice’.

“How are you feeling?” the nurse he didn’t know yet who was holding his leg up asked, dark brown eyes meeting his.

“Okay.” He chanced a deep breath.

“Not too much pain at the moment, I hope.”

“No, ma’am.” He flashed a smile, “Just fine.”

“Maybe we should test the pillows now?” Emily suggested as she placed the last freshly fluffed pillow where Metal’s leg would go.

“Sounds good.” he nodded and held his breath as the other nurse lowered his leg carefully.

“How’s that?” Emily asked once Full Metal’s leg was rested against the pillows once again.

He scrounged up his nose a little, “Think my knee needs more support.”

Emily nodded, “Yeah, looks like it. How about your ankle? Is it too much pillow under your ankle?”

Full Metal frowned, “I don’t know.”

“Okay?”

He shrugged a little and looked up at the nurses, “My ankle hurts, but I can’t… I don’t think I can feel my ankle or heel… Does that make sense?”

They both nodded a little.

“That’s gonna pass, right?”

The nurse who had held his leg looked over at Emily.

Emily shrugged a little, “That’s way too early to tell, I’m sorry I don’t have an answer for you.”

Full Metal sighed, “It could stay like that?”

“It’s possible that it’ll be permanent.” Emily nodded, “But it might also be just because your leg is beaten up as bad as it is.”

“I might never be able to walk properly again…” he worried and ran a rough hand over his short hair, “I’ll probably never serve alongside my brothers again.”

Emily watched as Scott came close to hyperventilating, and her heart ached as she watched his eyes gloss over.

“Hey-now…” Emily placed her hand on Full Metal’s free hand, “First: Take a deep breath.”

He did as she ordered, even without thinking.

“That’s true, it might happen. But right now, it’s way too early to know.” She gave his hand a squeeze, “I know this probably has ripped the rug straight out from under you. You’re obviously a fit man, who knows and enjoys taking care of yourself. So this must be a new and uncomfortable situation for you, and the idea that it might be something you’ll just have to get used to must be just as scary.”

His eyes focused on her green eyes, and her hand on his seemed to anchor him. “I won’t be me.”

“Yes, you will. But right now you’ve got to allow yourself to rest and relax.” Emily said as she leaned her elbows on the railing of the bed, “You’ve got every right to worry, and if you want to we can talk about that afterwards. But just remember, your body is still in crisis mode, and the healing hasn’t started yet. Right now you haven’t even walked up to the starting line.. And you’ll still be yourself no matter how well your leg will heal. I know you might feel that way, but what you can do or not, that’s not what defines you.”

He swallowed hard and gave a short nod.

“And your buddies… You’ll still be Full Metal to them.”

He couldn’t help but burst out in a short laugh, “You heard about that nickname?”

“Your buddies came looking for you by nickname. Took them a couple of tries to piece together the name you’re admitted under.”

Full Metal chuckled a bit more.

“Now, should we try to place those pillows better?”

Metal nodded, “Yeah, would be great.”

“Same procedure as last time?”

He nodded.

* * *

The nurses were about to exit his room when he figured he should speak up.

“Hey, uh… Emily…”

Emily stopped while the other nurse stepped outside, “Yeah?”

“About that talk…”

She nodded.

“I think I might need it.”

She nodded again and closed the door after the other nurse.


	6. Talks

Full Metal watched as Emily sat down on a plastic and metal chair. She tucked one leg up towards her chest, hugging her knee with her arms.

“I swear, I’ve usually got my shit together…” he sighed, “I don’t usually break down so easily.”

“I figured.” She winked.

He chuckled, “Yeah?”

“Full Metal… I mean, you’ve probably had to earn up to that nickname ever since you got it. And the fact that I witnessed five grown soldiers who looked like they would be comfortable in any situation they possibly could be put in, struggle to come up with your real name… It’s not a new nickname, is it?”

He smirked, “No, it’s got some mileage.”

She nodded.

“Thanks for the…” he pointed behind him to indicate a few minutes ago, “The tough love. I needed it.”

“Sorry if it was too tough.”

He shook his head, “No. Just right, in fact…”

“Good.” She smiled, before she looked over at where his injured leg was covered up.

“Gonna leave some serious scars…” he glanced over at her.

She nodded, “Yeah, it will. How do you feel about that?”

He shrugged a little, “Don’t really care much about it. It’s a part of the job, besides… I heard chicks dig scars.”

She chuckled despite herself, “Not everyone, but some of us at least.”

He offered up a smile, before his expression turned thoughtful once again, “You think I can make it back in action?”

She shrugged a little, “Already told you… Way too early to make guesses about that yet.”

He let his head fall back against his pillow, “I’ve been in the military since I basically was a kid… I don’t really know who I am without that life.”

“Yeah?” she tilted her head, “Who are you when you’re stateside?”

“Huh?”

“When you’re at home. My guess is that you don’t live in a tent or a barracks when you’re at home. I also guess that you have something you tend to do when you’re at home.”

“No. I switch the barracks out for a small-ish apartment when I’m home.” he shrugged.

She nodded.

“I live alone, so I don’t need that much space. I don’t spend much time there anyway.” He shrugged, “And the rest of my family lives close enough so I don’t need spare bedrooms.”

“Sounds like we have the same approach to home-life then…”

“Yeah?”

She nodded, “When I’m back home, I’m usually just back for a couple of months at most. I’ve got a two-bedroom miniature apartment. Rent one bedroom out to a student, and for a month or two we’re roomates.”

Full Metal chuckled, “Smart move.”

She nodded, “Yeah. So, what do you usually do when you’re home?”

“Work out.” He shrugged, “Hang out with the rest of the team. Visit family. Won’t be up for working out, the team won’t be home for a while and I won’t be able to visit my family before my leg gets a lot better.”

She pressed her lips together as she listened to him.

“What about you? Got any hobbies to recommend?” he asked as he raised his eyebrows at her.

She shrugged a bit, “I’m an avid photographer, that’s a good low energy hobby.”

He smirked.

“I cook and bake.” She tilted her head from side to side, “I read.”

“Well, kitchen stuff usually means you have to be on your feet for a stretch of time.” he tsked, “Photographing as well, I guess.”

“It’s possible to have an office chair to scoot around on in the kitchen.”

“True.” He chuckled, “But I don’t even think I’m there yet.”

“Yeah, you have to keep your leg up for a while. Above heart level, preferably.”

He nodded, “Reading, well… Guess I could do that.”

She nodded, “So, I see you’ve got a book laying on your table… Have you read it?”

“No, my buddies figured they should fix a ‘Full Metal care package’…” he chuckled, “Haven’t even gotten around to reading the title yet.”

Emily smiled.

“So, what do you read?” he asked.

“Action, thrillers, crime.” She shrugged, “And anything else I can get lost in.”

He nodded along, “What’s your favorite book then?”

“Can I pick an entire series?”

He shrugged and nodded.

“The Jack Reacher series then.” She smiled.

“Yeah, what’s that about?”

“This guy named Jack Reacher, who’s an ex-MP.” She started, “He’s never looking for trouble, but trouble sure has a way of finding him. The books always carry a lot of suspense, has a good pace. The character isn’t really a good-guy, but he sure isn’t a bad-guy either. He’s just a guy who wants everything to be right, yet he’s balancing on the line between what’s okay and what is a crime.”

“Sounds interesting.”

She nodded, and glanced to her right for a moment as something pinged, but seemed to disregard it quickly, “High suspense and high body count, that’s two things you can just expect.”

Full Metal nodded, “Sounds… Sounds like I have to check out the first book when I get back stateside.”

“Would recommend that.” Emily nodded, “Do you have a favorite book?”

“Nah… Not really. Only time I read is when I can’t do other stuff. Like when I’m on the plane and everyone else is sleeping.”

“-Or when you’re injured?”

“No, I usually manage to find other stuff to do then. But, this time…”

“-You might?”

He nodded.

  
* * *

The nurse had sat there with him and talked for probably half an hour, when he started feeling guilty. “I shouldn’t occupy you from your other patients.”

“You’re not.” She shook her head. “I won’t say the ‘Q’ word, but it’s one of those days. And if you look at that little display over there, none of my rooms are blinking…”

He looked over, “Yeah?”

“Yup. When the little green indicator is lit, that means ‘I’m here!’, so every time a patient pulls the call cord, it’s shown in the hallway AND in the rooms where that green button is pushed.”

“Oh, okay.” He nodded, “I didn’t know.”

She smiled, “Just, if I almost forget on the way out, please remind me to turn it off, because when someone pulls the call cord in a room where that green light is activated, there’s an alert and we all think someone has fallen and injured themselves more, or is about to die.”

“Copy that. I’ll try to remind you.”

She nodded, “And next med round is still an hour away… So… Unless you want peace and quiet…”

He shook his head, “No. I appreciate it.”

She smiled back at him.

“So, how did you end up working here?”

“The hospital I started out at back home has this as its sister-hospital.” She shrugged, “And I’m adventurous.”

“Enjoy it?”

She nodded.

“Plan on doing this forever?”

She shrugged, “I plan on traveling a lot, but I’m also planning on settling down at a point. I just don’t know if that’s five or fifteen years down the line.”

“That’s a dangerous way of thinking…” Full Metal chuckled, “Pretty soon you’re a ‘lifer’…”

She chuckled, “Yeah. That wouldn’t be too bad either.”

He smiled, then he didn’t. “I really thought I’d be a soldier until they carried me out feet first.”

“I’m pretty sure your family’s glad that didn’t happen this time.” Emily offered up, “And I know those teammates of yours are very glad they won’t have to attend another funeral just yet.”

Full Metal nodded, “Guess you’re right.”

She nodded.

They sat in silence for a couple of minutes, then she cleared her voice. “Have you been able to tell your family you’re hurt? I saw your emergency contact was one of your teammates.”

He shook his head, “No. Haven’t done that yet.”

“Do you need to borrow a phone?”

“No. Got my own.”

“Do you want me to sit here as emotional support?”

“Could you?”

She nodded, “I can. Just let me ask my coworkers if they can take my calls if someone needs help while you call them.”


	7. Amy

It was about 9:30 a.m. when her phone started buzzing on her desk.

Amy picked it up and saw her brother’s name and an incoming videocall on messenger. That was enough to make a chill go down her spine.

She looked at her students who was reading through a chapter in chemistry class. A few of them looked up questioningly.

“Excuse me, this is one call I need to take.” She informed, “Keep reading.”

* * *

After she closed the door to her classroom, she accepted the call.

“Hey little sister.” Her brother looked exhausted, that didn’t help settle her worry.

“Hey…” she tilted her head and studied him, “Is everything alright? You look tired.”

He shook his head. “I should have expected you to call me out on it immediately.”

“I know you’re on deployment. And you text if it’s just mundane stuff, you might call if it’s important and you haven’t gotten an answer. But when you facetime… That’s usually a bad sign.”

He shrugged one shoulder. Pulled a deep breath.

“Scotty…”

Almost half a minute passed before he answered.

“We were out on an OP.” he sighed, “We started taking fire. It escalated. All of the sudden we had an incoming RPG.”

Her legs felt weak. She had to find a place to sit down.

“The wall next to me collapsed.”

Neither of them managed to speak for about a minute.

“You’re hurt?”

He nodded.

“Bad?”

He squared his jaw and nodded.

“Did anyone else get hurt?”

“Thankfully not.” He furrowed his brows, “I was the only one.”

She hadn’t found a chair or anything, but she had slid down onto the floor. Her eyes were stinging like crazy, she silently cursed herself when she felt the first teardrop drip down her cheek.

“Are you in pain?”

“I was.” He admitted, “The nice nurses here give me some kickass drugs.”

She wiped her tears, “What kind of injury is it?”

“Crushed my left leg.”

“Crushed?”

He nodded a little, “Yeah, crushed.”

She wrapped one arm around her midriff, in a self-hug. “Can I see?”

“Not sure you want to, kid…”

“Kid?” she rolled her eyes a bit, “I’m 30-something year old teacher.”

He smirked, “Exactly. You’re barely 30…”

“34.” She scowled, “Now, I need to see it.”

“It looks bad.” He warned, “I’ve got metal rods poking into my leg. It’s bruised. Swollen.”

“May I see?”

He nodded, “Just need a bit of help by this nice nurse here. I can’t uncover my leg on my own.”

“You want me to lift this off now?” a woman’s voice asked off screen.

Her brother looked up and nodded, “Hey, Emily… Are you okay with being on camera?”

“Sure…” the woman’s voice answered.

“Okay, let me just flip this camera…” he said as his brows knitted tightly together, and suddenly she saw white covers instead of his face. 

A set of tan arms came into view, and the nurse asked if her brother was ready to have the covers lifted away. He obviously nodded, because a second later the nurse carefully revealed the mess that was her brother’s leg.

“Oh dear…” she gasped, “That looks bad…”

“Told you so…” he sighed, “Do you want a closer look?”

She paused for a beat before she answered, “Yeah.”

The picture moved a lot as if he was attempting to sit up straighter, but that attempt got cut short by a pained grumble.

“Easy there soldier…” the nurse’s voice cut in, “How about I handle the phone, and you try to avoid jostling that leg of yours?”

It took him a second or two more to answer than what Amy had expected, and when the nurse took the phone and turned the camera on him, she could’ve sworn her brother was at least a shade paler.

The screen then panned across his injured leg, first along the outside, then the inside of his leg.

“So, you’re coming home this time, right?” Amy asked.

“Yeah, but I think they might want to keep me here a couple of days more…” he replied.

“At least.” the nurse shot in.

“At least…” her brother repeated as the nurse handed his phone back to him, a moment later he had managed to turn on the front facing camera again, “I’m also going to have at least one more surgery, and I’m going to get some other hardware around my leg. But we don’t know if that surgery will take place here or back home yet.”

Amy nodded, “Would you like to stay here for a while when you get back home, or do you think the kids would wear you out right now?”

“Look, I love my nephews and my niece…” he rubbed one of his hands against his stubble, “But, unless I feel 20 times better before I get back home…”

Amy nodded, “How about I stop by to make sure you’re doing alright every now and then? Maybe bring some leftovers?”

He nodded, “I’ve missed your kitchen skills for a couple of months now…”

“I’ll be sure to cook up some of your favorites.”

“Best sister ever…” he smirked.

She smiled back, and looked left as the door to her classroom opened.

* * *

In the distance Full Metal could hear one of her students ask her if she had been crying. His sister answered truthfully. The student asked if something was wrong, and his sister shrugged a little. Then she answered truthfully once more, letting the student know that brother had managed to injure his leg pretty bad. That she felt very sorry for him, and that she worried a bit as well.

The student asked what kind of injury, and Amy stalled a bit before giving a mild version of the truth. “He broke his leg in a very bad way.”

He could hear the student wince, “I hope he’s not in too much pain.”

“Yeah…” Amy nodded and looked back down at the screen, “Hear that Scotty? We hope you’re not in too much pain.”

He chuckled, “No… Already told you that my pain right now is just okay…”

Amy nodded again, “Have you told mom or dad?”

“I’ll have told them by the time you’re off work.”

She nodded.

He sighed.

“I should get back to class. Hope that nurse is taking good care of you, and I can’t wait until I get to hug my older brother again, so consider yourself warned.”

He chuckled slightly, “But no jumping hugs. I’m not up for that.”

“No jumping hugs, of course.” She nodded, “Love ya, bye.”

“You too sis. Talk to you later.”


	8. Ilizarov

A week and five days later, was when he came back stateside. The day after that, he was done with the second surgery and it looked like he didn’t need any more surgeries before his leg got the chance to heal a bit.

The sight of his new brace was not for the faint-hearted. The surgeon had called it an Ilizarov frame, or apparatus, or something like that. It looked like something which belonged in a nightmare, especially when it was accompanied by his bruised and battered leg.

But at least he was back in the US.

His brother-in-law had been by on the first day he was back with necessities and stuff to keep him from going stir crazy, and had promised to come back a couple of days later with Amy and the kids.

* * *

A couple of days later there was a knock at the door and his sister’s family rolled in.

It was Amy and Robert, and their three offspring, Jack, Chris and Helen. Chris and Helen was still young kids, but Jack was already 16.

Amy held Chris by the hand, and Robert had Helen seated on his arm.

“UNCLE!!!!!” Chris beamed and tried to pull Amy with him. The five year old was beyond excited to finally see his uncle again.

Helen who was a bit younger was leaning in his direction and making grabby-hands as soon as she saw him, “Untle!”

Amy shushed a bit as she kept a firm hold of her youngest son’s hand, “We talked about this. You have to be careful with uncle scotty now. You can’t climb on him, he’s hurt.”

Chris stopped in his tracks and glanced up at his mom with big eyes, before he looked over at Full Metal with equally big eyes.

“…But… Hugs?” Chris pouted.

“Oh, I need my hugs…” Full Metal chuckled, “But mom or dad will have to help you up to me…”

Chris nodded like his life depended on it.

Full Metal smiled and watched as his sister picked up his youngest nephew, giving him stern instructions to lay still and not bump his uncle’s leg, before she laid him down on Metal’s left side. Robert walked around the bed and placed Helen on his right side.

Chris snuggled close, but once that was done he stayed as still as could be.

“Missed you too, little guy…” Metal said as he pulled the kid closer in a hug, then he pulled Helen a little closer as well, “And you, little lady…”

Helen mirrored her brother, before she jammed her thumb in her mouth. 

Metal then looked around the room, “Missed all of you…”

* * *

“Does it hurt?” Jack asked after they had been there for a while.

Full Metal glanced down at his niece napping on his right shoulder, then at his youngest nephew, then his oldest nephew. “Later?”

Jack understood that his uncle wanted to shield his younger siblings, and nodded, “Later.”

* * *

After Helen had woken back up again, Robert suggested that they’d go down in the cafeteria to buy ice cream.

The two youngest got excited by the idea, and soon enough Robert and Amy had helped their two youngest back down from their uncle’s hospital bed.

“Okay, we’ll go down and buy ice creams…” Amy declared, “Do you two want some?”

Full Metal shrugged. Jack nodded.

“Not really feeling it?” Robert asked, looking at his brother-in-law.

“Don’t really have an appetite for anything these days.” Metal shrugged back.

“How about we buy an ice cream for you, and you just eat how much you want?” Amy suggested.

“You don’t have to…”

“Well, I know for a fact that you LOVE ice cream…” Amy said, crossing her arms over her chest, “And you could use a pick-me-up right about now…”

“Hey, choose your battles wisely…” Jack winked at Full Metal, “You of all should know that by now…”

Metal chuckled a bit, “Alright, you win.”

Amy nodded, then she acted like she got a brand new idea, “Actually, we might go check out the playground outside. Why don’t one of you shoot us a text when you start missing us too much. Then we’ll come back with ice creams.”

“Good plan.” Full Metal nodded.

Jack agreed.

* * *

“So. Pain?” Jack asked as soon as the door closed behind his parents and younger siblings.

Full Metal nodded, “Yeah. It’s definitely there.”

Jack rolled his eyes, “Not a question of if, a question of how…”

Full Metal sighed, “It’s pretty bad. Hurts… Constantly.”

Jack nodded.

“But hey, could always be worse.”

Jack shrugged, “Yeah, I mean… You could’ve been attacked by a shark, on land…”

Metal chuckled, “Good one, kid… Good one…”

“Did uncle Trent work his medic magic?”

Metal nodded, “He did…”

“Did it bleed a lot?”

“Before the tourniquet was on? Yeah.”

“Can I take a look?”

“Not really sure you want to…” Metal shrugged, “It looks bad on every sort of scale.”

Jack nodded a little, “Trying to shield me as well now?”

“You’re still a kid…”

“And in about two years, I’ll wear a uniform and a few years after that I’ll be gunning for uncle Trent’s job.” Jack reasoned, “Come on…”

“You’re still set about that?”

Jack nodded.

“Okay. Look, my thigh looks the least horrific. I’ll show you that first and if that doesn’t freak you out, then maybe I’ll show my lower leg and foot.”

Jack nodded, “Alright deal.”

“It’s very colorful.” Full Metal grabbed a hold of the covers covering his legs and lifted it aside enough to show off his lower thigh.

“Ouch.”

Full Metal chuckled, “Sure you’re not gonna be a writer instead? The wizard of words that you are.”

Jack chuckled, “Pretty sure. But I do want to see the rest of your leg as well..”

“You’re not normal…” Full Metal chuckled.

Jack shrugged, “No, that would’ve been a shame...”

Metal chuckled, “Sure would’ve been…”

“Can I see?”

“You might regret it…”

“Mom would be thrilled if something managed to change my mind…”

“She would be relieved.” Metal nodded, “It’s not easy being the mom of someone who decides to become a soldier. Especially not of someone who wants to be a part of special ops.”

Jack chuckled, “Did you think of grandma when you joined?”

“To be honest, I didn’t.” Metal shook his head, “But it was a different time. It was before 9/11.”

“Okay, yeah… That’s a point.”

“It is…” Metal nodded.

“So… May I see?”

“Yeah… But you’re gonna have to help me remove the covers.” Metal shrugged, “I can barely reach my knee from this position.”

Jack nodded.

“And be careful… It’s…” Metal frowned, “It hurts having it still. ANY movement tenfolds it.”

Jack nodded, “I’ll be more careful than I’ve ever been.”

* * *

“Oh dear…” Jack frowned, causing Full Metal to chuckle.

“You sounded exactly like your mother right there.”

Jack shrugged as he studied his uncle’s leg for a few more seconds.

“Well, at least you’re not turning pale…” Full Metal shrugged, “So that’s something…”

Jack nodded, “Man, this…”

Metal nodded, “Long road ahead…”

Jack nodded once more.

“Any thoughts?”

“Sure gives another meaning to ‘Full Metal’…” Jack shrugged, “Or in this case, ‘Full of metal’…”

Metal chuckled a bit, “Yeah, it does.”

“How long will you have to have that thing on there?”

“The last surgeon put a ‘no timetable’ on this…” Metal shrugged, “Four to six months seemed to be the minimum.”

“That sucks…”

“Sure does.” Metal nodded, “I just hope the pain subsides soon…”

Jack nodded, “I can imagine.”

“So… Are you going to be on crutches or are you getting wheels for a while?”

Metal shrugged, “I don’t know yet. But I can’t imagine how painful it would be to hobble along on crutches right now. Kinda hoping for some wheels to roll around on for a spell.”

Jack nodded, “I hope you know you can ask me for help when you need it. If you need someone to drive you somewhere, or get groceries… Or just someone to keep you company.”

Full Metal smiled a bit.

“I know your teenage nephew probably isn’t the first person you’d like to hang out with, but…” Jack shrugged.

“No, you know I love spending time with you. All three of you kids.” Metal shot in, “Never doubt that.”

Jack chuckled, “No, I know…”

“That’s good.”

“How many breaks did you have?”

“Lots.” Metal answered scratching his neck, “They didn’t give me a solid count.”

Jack nodded.

“But could you put the covers back over?” Metal asked, “I don’t like looking at it too much.”

Jack nodded and carefully draped the covers back over his uncle’s leg.

“So, didn’t manage to change your mind on what you want to do with life?”

“Pfft… I’ve seen uncle Trent’s arm since I was a kid.”

Metal chuckled, “Okay, fair.”

* * *

The rest of them returned back about 10 minutes after they sent the text. And they brought ice creams.

It was a welcomed treat, but he didn’t manage to eat more than about half of it.


	9. Home

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, this friday was supposed to be my day off. I did some stuff at home, I went for a long hike...  
> And then work called and asked if I could sit 1-on-1 tonight.   
> -And my stupid ass with no concern for my own well being said yes.   
> It's 5:30 a.m. and I'm beyond exhausted...

“It’s gonna be good seeing Full Metal again.” Clay said as he let his head fall back to rest on the net behind him.

Sonny nodded, “Wonder how he’s holding up…”

“You know the man, probably going stir crazy by now.” Ray shrugged, “About ready to climb the walls.”

“No, he’s probably in too much pain still to climb any walls.” Trent truth-bombed, “But he’s probably tired of being on injured reserve.”

Sonny nodded, “Yeah, probably.

“I feel bad, I haven’t talked with him as much as I should’ve…” Brock sighed.

“Don’t beat yourself up about it…” Trent shook his head, “He doesn’t like the extra reminder that he’s not here with us. He’d much rather have us as visitors now that we get home.”

“Yeah?”

Trent nodded, “Yeah, he’s not comfortable with his teammates being on deployment without him. Never has been.”

“We should arrange something fun for him.” Clay shot in, “Something to brighten up his recovery time.”

“Like what?” Sonny asked, “Our favorite silver fox isn’t going to be up for anything. I don’t even think he’d be up for a night at the bar.”

“You know he’d beat you up if he heard you refer to him as a silver fox, right?” Trent asked and cocked an eyebrow at Sonny.

“Pretty sure I could outrun him right now…”

“Can you outrun bullets as well?” Clay mused, “Cause he’s a damn good shot as well.”

“I said _favorite_ silver fox,..” Sonny shrugged.

“You still called out that he’s got grey hair…” Jason smirked, “He wouldn’t like that.”

“You’re probably right about that…” Clay chuckled.

* * *

Half a day later, they were back home. An hour and thirty minutes after that, they were all filing into the room where Full Metal was resting.

He wasn’t in the hospital anymore, but he was some sort of nursing home which took care of traumatic injuries. He had stayed at the hospital for a couple of weeks, and then he had spent about a month at the nursing home so far.

“Look at that handsome son of a gun…” Jason teased as soon as they started entering the door.

“Well, do my eyes deceive me?” Metal beamed back as he saw that ALL of his teammates were back home with him, “You managed to find your way back home without me?”

“Sure did, brother…” Ray smirked.

“You look a little better today than the last time we all saw ya…” Sonny smiled, “Less see-through, more of your regular skin color.”

Full Metal couldn’t help the twitch of the corner of his lips, “Thank you.”

“How are they treating you here?” Trent asked, gesturing vaguely to the anonymous looking room.

“Well, the PT is a descendant of Satan….” Metal shrugged, “Other than that, they’re all cool.”

“He making you do exercises?”

“Call it what you want…” Full Metal shrugged, “Mostly just attempt wiggling my toes and standing up next to my bed. But it’s brutal.”

“But you’ve been standing up?”

“Even hobbled over to the bathroom.” He nodded, “With one of those walkers you rest your elbows on.”

“Hey, that’s great!” Trent grinned, knowing just how big those small victories really were.

“Needed help getting back through.” Metal shrugged, “All five times.”

Trent shrugged a little, “Give it a little time.”

Metal nodded, not exactly enthusiastic looking, “Yeah, give it a little time…”

“So, are you going to show off and wiggle your toes for us or not?” Brock shot in.

“I said _attempt_ to wiggle my toes.” Full Metal frowned, “Didn’t claim I was in a position to actually make it.”

“Well, will you attempt for us then?” Brock corrected himself. “100 percent, 100 percent of the time… You know.”

“Well, my 100 percent was reached an hour ago. PT finished me off by making me hobble over to that chair, and back.” Full Metal shook his head.

Trent nodded, “I get it.”

“I know…” Full Metal dipped his head in Trent’s direction, he had been there as a spectator to the elbow rehab of times gone by.

“Another day…” Jason winked,

“Maybe…” Full Metal shrugged.

“Definitely…” Jason smirked and delivered a solid pat to Metal’s shoulder. 


	10. The Machine

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okaaaay... So, I almost posted this chapter when it was 700 words long. Then I decided that I wasn't satisfied with it, and threw a curveball. Ended up writing 2700 words total...

By the time he was ready to leave the rehabilitation facility, he was able to hobble about 80 yards without having to take a break. He was still in a lot of pain, and his energy level was well below his ankles, but he was finally allowed to go back home.

All of his wounds had either a solid scab protecting it, or had healed enough to have fresh scar tissue covering it. His leg was still discolored and pretty shapeless from all of the swelling. If it hadn’t been for the freshly healed stitches over his kneecap from where they had opened his knee up to pull his kneecap back together with wire or something, he wouldn’t have been able to locate his own knee.

Whatever muscles he had once had in that leg seemed to have vanished, it was a stark contrast to the other leg which had also lost a good bit of muscle mass since his injury.

* * *

“Do you need any help? Support? Anything?” Jack asked, almost ready to keep his uncle upright as they got ready to move from the room Full Metal had been staying in at the center to the truck Jack borrowed from his dad.

“No… Best if I just get enough room to move around.”

“Oh, okay…”

“But it would be very helpful if you could take my bag…”

“Oh, yeah. Got it!”

“Thanks.”

“Anything else?”

“Open doors?” Metal shrugged a bit before he started shuffling towards the hallway. The first door was already wide agape.

The trip from his room and out to Jack’s car required four breaks. By the time they reached the truck, Metal was beading with sweat.

“What do you need?”

“Sit down.” The answer came clipped.

“Need any help?”

He shook his head, but let go of one of the crutches to point at the car door.

“Open the door and don’t touch you?”

He nodded.

Jack did as his uncle wanted him to do.

* * *

Jack glanced over at his uncle once he got in behind the wheel, “You’re trembling.”

“I noticed.” Full Metal nodded quickly before he shoved his hands under his butt.

“Because of the pain?”

He shrugged a bit, “Can we not talk about that for a few minutes.”

“Sure.”

Metal closed his eyes and let his head loll back against the headrest.

Jack nodded and turned on the ignition and started rolling out of the parking lot.

* * *

“Think it was a mix…” Full Metal admitted a few minutes later, glancing over at his nephew.

“What?”

“The shaking.” He clarified, “Pain and that I haven’t moved that much in… A while.”

Jack nodded, “How are you doing now?”

“It’s better. Not good, but better.”

“Want me to run up and fix a bunch of pillows on the couch before you get out of the car when we get to your place?”

Full Metal shrugged, then nodded. “Yeah, probably a good plan.”

* * *

Ten minutes later he was stationed on his couch with his leg elevated once again.

“Do you need anything?” his nephew asked yet another time, “Ice pack? Hot water bottle? Pillows?”

Full Metal chuckled, “No. I’m good. Thanks.”

“Oh, okay…” Jack nodded and sat down in the old beat up second hand stressless chair at the short end of the table, “Mom said she’d be by later. Told me to ask you if you wanted her to cook up something for you to eat.”

“That would be great.” Full Metal nodded, “I have no idea what I’d like to eat though.”

Jack nodded, “I’m just going to tell her to cook up something she knows you like then…”

Metal nodded, then he suddenly fixed his nephew with his eyes, “Oh, I just remembered one thing you could do for me…”

Jack sat forward in his chair, ready to get up, “What?”

“The fridge and the freezer is disconnected… Could you plug them in?”

Jack nodded and got up to complete the tasks, “And the water? Is that turned off, or?”

“Yeah, it is. Red handle in the cabinet right inside the door.”

Jack nodded and added that to his list of stuff to do, “Any other ‘coming back home’ tasks?”

“No, that should be it… Thank you.”

“No problem…” Jack shrugged, “We take care of our own, right? Just like when dad was hurt when I was a kid.”

Full Metal swallowed hard and nodded a bit, “Thanks, but… Do you even remember that?”

“Remember it? I don’t remember him being in the hospital or anything. But I remember I stayed with you and Kiara for a while. I remember mom crying a lot right before she drove me to your place…” he shrugged, “I don’t really remember dad being hurt, but I remember you took care of us. And I remember we did a lot of fun stuff.”

Metal chuckled, “Yeah, we did some fun stuff.”

Jack smiled, “I remember that epic blanket fort we made…”

“Epic? It was like three chairs and a couple of blankets…” Metal chuckled, “But, it kept you from asking where your mom and dad was at the time…”

“Well, it was epic for a four year old…” Jack chuckled as he returned from plugging in the fridge, the last item on his list, “What really happened to dad though? Dad won’t talk about it. Mom won’t talk about it…”

Full Metal nodded along.

“Is there any reason I shouldn’t know about it?”

Metal sighed, “Not really…”

“Do you know what happened?” Jack asked as he sat back down, “Because… It’s really just known as ‘the accident’ at home…”

Metal nodded, “You remember what your dad did before it?”

“No…”

Metal chuckled a bit, “Well, your dad, was once a part of the same team as I was…”

“My pencil pushing dad?” Jack’s voice went an octave higher than he had planned on, out of pure disbelief.

“He wasn’t always a pencil pusher…” Metal chuckled, “He was pretty… Pretty badass…”

“For real?”

“Yeah.” Metal nodded, “He was.”

“But, he’s not…” Jack shook his head, “He’s… He couldn’t have been… He’s too scared to go on the most gentle rides in amusement parks…”

“Well, the accident… It really changed him.” Metal shrugged, “Before that he was the guy you just couldn’t scare.”

“Can’t be true…”

“Oh, I have proof…” Metal chuckled.

“For real?” Jack chuckled, “My dad?”

“In my room, on the top of my closet… Should be a grey shoebox…” Metal pointed towards his bedroom door, “I think it’s the grey one anyway… Could you get it?”

Jack got up, but didn’t move towards the bedroom just yet, “Are you serious?”

“Like cancer…” Metal nodded, “Grey box on top of my closet, should be pictures from the late 90s… Oh, and bring the yellow one as well. That should be early 2000s.”

Jack nodded and went to get the box.

* * *

“Now what?”

Metal didn’t answer at first, he just reached out and picked up the box Jack had placed on the table. Then he lifted the lid off and pulled the first stack of pictures. “Lift the chair closer so we can go through these together.”

Jack did as he was told.

Metal made sure to hold the pictures so Jack had a clear line of view, “Now this right here, is from one of the first times I met your dad. We went through basic training together.”

“You did?”

Metal nodded, “Yeah. Competed about being the best one, made each other better. Became pretty solid buddies.”

“You both look so young there…”

“News flash: We were.” Metal chuckled, “Like, two or three years older than you are now.”

“Hard to imagine…”

“Well, it feels like a lifetime ago…” Metal shrugged and revealed the next picture, “These are obviously not in order…”

The picture was of Full Metal holding Jack when he was less than a day old.

“That’s me?”

“Yeah.” Metal smiled, “You were so tiny…”

Jack nodded, “Obviously.”

The next picture showed both Full Metal and Robert, Jack’s father, hanging from their knees upside down from a wall which was meant to be climbed over. Metal had his arms down by his head, while Robert looked like he in the middle of doing a sit-up.

“Competing each other better?”

“Yeah.” Metal chuckled.

“Who won?”

“It’s almost two decades ago… I don’t remember.” Metal shrugged, “-Your dad probably did. He was better at core exercises than I was back then…”

“Really?”

“Yeah, the man was a machine…” Metal shrugged, “I beat him on lots of other stuff though.”

He flipped over to the next picture. It showed Metal with a split lip a swollen eye and bloodied t-shirt, and Robert with a shiner swelling his left eye shut. Robert had one arm slung around Metal’s shoulder, both had wicked grins plastered on their faces.

“What?”

“Oh, uh…” Metal shrugged, “We don’t need to mention that one…”

“No, WE DO NEED to mention that one…” Jack chuckled, “What is the backstory for that?”

“We… Some guy was uhhh…” Metal shrugged, “Some guy was not very nice to Kiara. We took it upon us to fix that.”

“That’s how you and Kiara met?”

Metal nodded.

“Do you miss her?”

“Not that much anymore. I think it was for the better that we split.” Metal answered in a hollow voice, “But, of course… She’s probably the only woman that would ever care to keep up with me.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Well, about that picture…” Metal chuckled a bit, “Kiara was the one who split my lip.”

“No?”

Metal chuckled, “Yeah. She thought we were on the guy’s team…”

“Auntie Ki?”

“Yup.” Metal nodded, “You probably remember her as the second most motherly figure on this planet, only second to your own mom… But that woman, she never needed a man. She… Tough as nails.”

Jack nodded, “Why did you really split up? Can I ask?”

“Yeah…” Metal nodded, “She wanted kids. I didn’t want to potentially make her a single mom… And I never really managed to find a way to quit the team…”

“You’re stupid, you know that?”

“Yeah. I do.” Metal nodded, “But… She deserved a lot better than what I could offer.”

Metal switched over to the next picture again, like that would be a universal marker for ‘end of conversation’.

“Did you ever want kids?”

“Huh?”

“You heard me…”

Metal shrugged, “I’m really not a father type…”

He flicked over to the next picture. Him in a ditch, with a shovel.

“You’d be an awesome dad.” Jack shrugged, “I know that because you’re the best uncle ever…”

“Kind of you to say, but… Being a dad and being an uncle is two VERY different tasks.”

“Not that different.”

Next picture. A bunch of young soldiers who was laying in the sun with their t-shirts pulled off and their pants rolled up to their knees.

“Well, it’s not going to happen now anyway.” Metal shrugged, “That particular train left the station with Kiara.”

“You could always meet another woman…”

“That would keep up with me?” Metal scoffed, “As if…”

“I mean it…”

Next picture. One that needed commenting.

“Now this one… First time your dad met your mom.”

“But, that’s not at a football game…”

“No.” Metal chuckled, “First time your parents met, was at a family gathering. I had a few of my teammates with me. We were about 20, 21… Amy was still a teen. I don’t think your parents really remember that. They officially met when Amy was 21, eight years later. At a football game.”

“You’re kidding?”

Metal chuckled and shook his head, “No. And that was a weird conversation. Rob came back from leave saying he had met this amazing woman and talked a bucket full about her. Took me 20 minutes to realize it was my younger sister.”

“-And, how did that go?”

“Well, I was skeptical at first.” Metal chuckled, “One of my best buddies and my sister together. Sounded like trouble.”

Jack nodded.

* * *

They ended up going through the entire grey box of pictures, and Jack saw pictures of his dad doing stuff he had never imagined his own dad doing. Like standing ready to jump out of an airplane with a parachute on his back, and climbing, rappelling and practicing hand to hand combat with fellow soldiers.

Well into the yellow box, Metal found the pictures which explained it all.

“That’s a lot of tubes and wires…” Jack swallowed.

Metal nodded.

“What was wrong?”

“Your dad got really hurt.” Metal started, “Broke most of his ribs, something in his back. Luckily that didn’t injure his spinal cord. Punctured one of his lungs. Internal bleeding. Had a concussion so bad we didn’t know if he’d be himself when they brought him out of the medically induced coma they kept him in. Or even if he’d wake up…”

“How?”

“Our chopper got shot down.” Metal ran a hand over his hair, “Somehow none of us died.”

“You were in it as well?”

Metal nodded.

“And you didn’t get hurt?”

“Broke my left arm…” Metal shrugged, “Banged up one of my knees. That’s why we did low energy stuff like building a blanket fort and watching cartoons the first couple of weeks.”

“The first couple of weeks?” Jack tilted his head, “But, I wasn’t at your place for that long… Was I?”

“Two months and two weeks. But you were with grandma and grandpa every now and then as well.”

“But…”

Metal glanced over at his nephew.

“But… It wasn’t that long…”

“You were a kid, luckily you don’t remember how long it was…”

Jack nodded and looked at Metal, “You and Kiara really took care of me for that long?”

“With grandma and grandpa to step in every now and then…”

“But where was mom?”

“Look at this picture, where do you think?”

“She stayed with dad?”

Metal nodded a little, “She did that, and she cried. And she wanted to shield you from it, so instead of letting you know what was going on in real time, she just told you that you were going to have a vacation with us.”

Jack nodded, “But when did I learn that dad got hurt?”

“When he was ready to come home.” Metal shrugged, “We said it was a much smaller accident than it really was. Not life-threatening like it had been. And since you had already spent months with me limping around with a knee that slowly got better and a arm I had a cast on, you understood that your dad needed to rest a lot.”

“That’s so different from what I thought I remembered…”

“Yeah?”

“We played football and basket ball and…”

“Yeah, well…” Metal chuckled, “We did. Not the first couple of weeks, but it would be a shame if a member of SEAL team didn’t keep up with a 4 year old when he’s only got a bum knee and a forearm which needed rest.”

“Okay, probably true…” Jack chuckled, “And you taught me how to ride a bike.”

“No. That was all on your own.” Metal chuckled, “I was just there watching, ready to comfort you if you skinned your knees or elbows…”

“Really?”

“Yeah…” Metal nodded, “Anyway… Your dad did recover really well. There’s no… He’s got the same personality and all… But I guess he just figured he was mortal, and couldn’t deal with all the craziness anymore.”

“He really was that badass before?”

“He was a complete machine…” Metal nodded, “You know how most of my buddies call me Full Metal, or Metal…”

Jack nodded.

“Well, Rob really was ‘The Machine’…”

“How don’t I know all of this already?”

“Because… Because…” Metal shrugged, “I don’t really know. We slowly stopped calling him that when he became an accountant, and… It just faded away I guess. -You were probably too young to catch onto it back then…”

Jack nodded, “I wish I had known him like that…”

Metal shrugged, “He’s become more of a father than he was before the accident… Went from job first to family first. I think you grew up with the best version of your dad.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.” Metal nodded, “You did.”


	11. Em

He had passed the four month mark the first time the rest of the team managed to drag him out to the bar. He wasn’t ready for it, and he knew it. But they insisted and he knew some time outside of his apartment could do him good. After all, he could sit in a booth with his leg up the entire time.

* * *

He ended up standing next to the pool table chatting with Sonny for a little while, before he figured that he needed to find a place to sit down. He took a slight hop backwards and bumped into someone. He winced before he turned around to apologize for his lack of spatial awareness.

He was not prepared for who he saw when he turned around.

Apparently, she was equally as shocked when she saw him.

He quickly tried to school his features, erasing the signs that the small bump had made his pain worse.

“I’m-so-sorry!” she blurted out, her eyes darting to his leg, “Did I hurt you?”

His leg hurt, but he couldn’t help but chuckle, “Don’t worry about it. And it was me who stepped backwards. Sorry I bumped you.”

She looked him up and down once more, relaxing a bit, “So Metal, what are you doing here?”

“I could ask the same thing…” he smirked, “My teammates figured it was high time they got me out of the apartment. And I live just a few miles out…”

Her mouth fell open for a second, “You live here?”

“A few miles away, but yeah.” Metal nodded, “So, what are you doing in these parts?”

“I’m out with my girls.” She shrugged, “Really, you live here? In this city? That’s… Weird.”

“Oh, that must be fun.” He grinned back, “And why is that weird, everybody’s got to call somewhere their home…”

She nodded, “I live like ten minutes east of here. That’s why that’s weird.”

“Yeah, that’s weird.” He grinned.

“How have you been?”

“Slowly getting better than last time you saw me…” he smiled, “But, I was going to go find a spot to sit down… Wanna join me for a bit?”

“Sure thing…” she smiled.

* * *

“So, Emily…” he smiled as they finally had arranged themselves in one of the booths and he had his bad leg up, “How have you been?”

“Oh, you know… Busy.” She shrugged, “Had a couple of really busy months after you shipped back home. You probably saw some of it on the news…”

He nodded a bit, “Yeah. Almost daily bombings there for a while…”

She nodded.

“Did you just get back home?”

“Yeah, a short week ago…” she nodded, “And you? Is this your first time out?”

He nodded, “Yeah. First time out, not drinking though.”

“Pain meds?”

He nodded, “Yeah.”

She shrugged a little, “That sucks…”

“Yeah, the pain sucks…” he admitted, “But, it’ll pass.”

Emily nodded, “So, are you about ready to have that contraption off soon?”

He shook his head, “I don’t know… I don’t think so… I’m going for x-rays on Tuesday, gonna figure out if everything is healing on schedule or not. Most of it looked alright when I left the rehabilitation facility, except two of the breaks.”

Emily nodded, “Let me guess. The two open ones?”

He nodded, “Yeah, the one at my ankle didn’t really show any signs of healing last time, they talked about getting a bone graft and place in there once the rest of the leg gets better.”

She nodded.

“And the other one was just wrong placement. So, they broke it back up and adjusted it not too long ago…”

She winced in sympathy. “That doesn’t sound good…”

“No…” he shrugged, “But it’s a lot better than what it was. I can actually move around a bit.”

She nodded.

“But, if the pictures look good, I’m going to get the top part of this brace removed and I’ll be able to start moving my knee again.” He grinned.

She smiled, “Fingers crossed.”

He nodded.

* * *

They had sat there for quite a while before one of her friends came over.

“Emmy, I’ve been looking all over for you.” The blonde whined as she sat down next to her, “Oh, who’s this gentleman?”

“This is… Scott.” Emily smiled.

Full Metal nodded and held out his right hand for the blonde to shake, “Scott Carter.”

“Jessica…” the blonde smiled back, “Jessica Ruiz.”

“Nice to meet you.” He nodded, “You work friends or?”

“No, old school friends.” Emily smiled and glanced over at Jessica, “Jess is a kindergarten teacher.”

“And, you?” Jessica tilted her head in Metal’s direction, “Who is Scott Carter?”

“Oh, I’m a soldier.” He shrugged a little, “Or, ex-soldier… I think I can add an ‘ex’ in front of that title by now.”

Emily shrugged, “Time will tell…”

Jessica leaned sideways to see Metal’s legs better and noticed where the seam of his cargo pants were split down the side to make room for the brace around his leg. She shuddered visibly before she placed a hand on Emily’s shoulder, “Sorry, I can’t look at that. You know how I am with ANYTHING your work consists of… You two, have a good time. I’ll find Abby or someone to hang out with.”

Then she left.

“-Sorry…” Emily shrugged, “She really doesn’t mean to be rude about it. She just… She can’t even look at a papercut without being sick.”

“Noted…” Full Metal bit down on his lower lip to keep from chuckling, “Is that some sort of friendship-wise ‘opposites attract’?”

Emily nodded, “Guess so… And we’ve been friends since forever.”

“So, Emmy?” he let the shortened version of her name roll off his tongue as if he was testing it to see if he would like to call her by that version.

“Yeah, the world’s full of nicknames, ain’t it? Full Metal.”

Metal chuckled a bit, “Sure is…”

* * *

“Hey, totally forgot about you a while…” Sonny grimaced as he came over to the booth Metal sat in, “Anyth- …Oh hey there little lady…”

Emily blushed a bit and nodded back at him, “Hello.”

“I’m third wheeling if I sit down, ain’t I?”

Metal chuckled a bit and offered up a shrug, Emily did the same.

Sonny scratched his scalp, then he focused back on Metal, “Anything I can get you at the bar? Beer, whiskey? Soda? Snacks?”

“Soda, or something non-alcoholic…” Metal shrugged.

“Pain meds, right…” Sonny nodded, “Be right back…”

Sonny left for the bar, and Emily looked over at Metal, “Is he always that…That…?”

“No…” Metal chuckled, “Only when he sees women he thinks of as gorgeous.”

“Oh, okay…” Emily chuckled, “Now I know there’s at least one guy in here who thinks I’m kinda cute.”

“Oh, I can guarantee you that there’s way more than one guy.” Metal smirked, “And it’s gorgeous, not just ‘kinda cute’.”

“Well, if you could point me in the direction of one of them, that would be awesome.”

“Oh, I’m not really sure about his name… But… Couple of inches taller that that guy… A little older as well, probably. A little salt and pepper going on in his hair…” Metal shrugged.

She tilted her head questioningly.

“Stop me if I’m overstepping some sort of boundary… Please…” he dropped his head, “I don’t want to get you in trouble.”

She bit down on her lower lip, as if she was thinking, “We both agree that I’m definitely no longer your nurse, right?”

He nodded.

“And that the time which has passed since I stopped being your nurse, is a lot longer then how long I was your nurse for…”

“Yeah.”

“And neither of us came to this specific bar, knowing that the other one would be here.”

He nodded again.

“Well, since you’re not my current patient in any way, it should be okay…”

“So I can shoot my shot?”

She nodded.

He smiled, “So, yeah… You’re gorgeous.”

She smiled, “Thank you…”

“Oh, that’s a WEAK SHOT!” a particular Texan’s voice drawled as he came back with a bottle of coke, “Come on Full Metal, gotta do better than that!”

Emily chuckled and blushed.

Metal just shrugged, “Well, I would have asked you for a dance…”

“Well, I hope there’s a rain-check for that…” Emily winked.

“Oh. Yeah.” Metal nodded eagerly, “But not before I’m able to walk around on that leg of mine.”

Emily nodded, “I’ll hold you to that.”

“Please do.” He winked.

“Okay, you’re doing well enough here on your own. Obviously.” Sonny cleared his voice, “I’m gonna go back to the other guys…”

Emily chuckled.

* * * 

They sat there talking for hours. Getting to know each other in a new way.

She could barely believe how easy he was to talk with, and how quickly time slipped away. All of the sudden it was past midnight.

“So, Em…” Metal smiled at her, “You hungry?”

“Kinda, yeah…”

“Ever been to the kebab place down the street?”

“No?”

“Oh, you’ve been missing out…” he grinned at her.

“Yeah?”

He nodded, “Some of the best kebab you’ll ever try. Promise.”

“Are we walking there?”

He nodded, “I was thinking we would.”

She nodded, glancing towards his leg.

“I’ve hobbled further.” He reassured, “And the pill I took almost an hour ago is… Working.”

She nodded, “Just don’t do something that’ll cause you more pain tomorrow, alright?”

“Don’t worry about it…” he shrugged.

“Okay… If you say so…”

He nodded, “Let’s go…”


	12. Morning text

The text next morning wasn’t what woke him up. No, his leg had made sure of that right along 5 a.m. His ankle inparticular felt like it was about to split apart, and the 40 milligrams of whatever he had taken almost five hours ago didn’t seem to be doing crap to ease the throbbing and cutting pain in in his leg. Nor did the five pillows he had propped his leg up on.

_‘Hey, hope last night isn’t  
kicking your butt. I’ve been   
baking breakfast rolls. Was   
wondering if you want to come  
over to my place, or if you   
want a visitor for a breakfast   
date…’_

He smiled as he read the text, then he frowned as he realized he would have to admit to his leg acting up. Taking a deep breath to steel himself, he pressed the dial icon in the top corner.

* * *

“Good morning…” Emily almost sang as she answered, and he got a warm fuzzy feeling in his chest.

“Good morning yourself…” he grinned into the phone.

“You’re awake?”

“Yeah, been so a while…” he shrugged.

“So? Breakfast date?”

He scowled down towards his elevated leg, “That would be great.”

“My place or your place?”

“Last night is kinda kicking my butt…” he chuckled humorlessly, “My place, I’ll text you the address…”

“Oh no… Are you in pain?”

He stalled a bit, not really wanting to admit to it, but he knew he would have to anyway. “Yeah, but don’t worry about it.”

“How bad is it?”

He stalled once again, “Been awake a couple of hours. Still in bed.”

“Anything you need?”

“No… Your company is plenty.” He reached down and tried to rub some soreness and ache out of his thigh.

“Okay. I’m coming over. With food.” She paused, “Want me to bring some jam, cheese, stuff to put on the rolls as well? Or is your fridge stocked?”

He chuckled a bit, “My fridge is not stocked at the moment. The wife of one of my teammates stops by with meals to just throw in the microwave oven.”

“Okay, anything in particular you’d like?”

“Nah, I’m an omnivore…” he chuckled.

“Okay. Good.” She paused a beat, “Anything you can’t have?”

“Nope. Not that I know of…”

“Okay, good…” her voice was warm and caring, “I’ll just pack everything up here at home, and I’ll be over.”

“Alright, I’ll make sure that I’m vertical and ready to let you in when you get here…”

“Yeah, good.”


	13. Practice makes perfect

“Whoa… You look like crap…”

He frowned and adjusted his stance in hopes that it would be less uncomfortable, “Thanks?”

“You know what I mean… You don’t look like you should be up…”

He nodded a little, “Doesn’t exactly feel like it either.”

“How about you sit down before you pass out, and I’ll get the food ready?”

He nodded a bit, and started hobbling towards the couch. Barely able to stifle a yelp as he sat down on the couch.

Emily watched as Metal quite painfully lifted his leg onto the couch.

“Do you need me to scavenge for pillows? Or do you need help in any other way?”

He flipped down the back pillow at the leg end of the couch and gently placed his leg on top, then he laid back, eyes closed and exhaled slowly. “No…”

“Just a few minutes of rest and quiet?”

He nodded a little, eyes still closed.

A couple minutes passed as Emily prepared some sandwiches from the breakfast rolls she had made.

“-Hey Em, sorry for being such a crappy host… And crappy company as well so far.”

Emily turned and looked at him, “Hey, you warned me… And I still kinda forced you out of bed. You’ve got nothing to be sorry for.”

He shrugged, “Still, I know I’m no fun to be around when I’m like this. Sorry…”

“Oh, you ain’t that bad…” she winked back at him.

“Trust me, I’ve been injured and in pain enough times to know I get cranky and rude.”

“Well, I don’t think you are either of those yet.” Emily shrugged, “I get that you’re in a lot of pain, and that you might need things to go a little slower for you to be able to process them today. Actually asking for that time isn’t rude or anything, it’s just trying not to get overwhelmed.”

Metal nodded a little, “Still wish I was able to be… To help you out over there…”

“Raincheck…” she winked as she picked up the wooden cutting board she had prepared the sandwiches on and carried them over to the table, “Now, I hope you’re hungry.”

He nodded a little and sat up more, “Those look really good.”

“I hope you like them.” She smiled back, “And you look a lot better already…”

He chuckled a bit, “Yeah, laying down after that little necessary hobble was needed.”

Emily nodded as she went back to the counter to pull out a thermos with coffee from her purse, “If I remember correctly, ‘coffee is important’?”

He smirked, “Yeah. -But I have the stuff to make coffee here as well…”

She shrugged a little, “Yeah, but… I was already making coffee at home… Now, cups… Where?”

“Top cabinet, left of the sink.”

She nodded and placed the thermos on the table before she went to find cups.

He heard her open the cabinet door and noticed the pause which lasted a couple of seconds.

“Uhm… You’ve got anything I can climb on top of? I’m a little vertically challenged when it comes to top shelf placements.”

He chuckled a bit, “Vertically challenged?”

“I’m short. Funsized.” She shrugged.

He chuckled some more, before he did his very best to school his features, “Would a chair work?”

“A kitchen chair would. Not that living room chair you’ve got next to the couch…” she said as she pointed towards the mentioned chair, “And I don’t really see any other chairs here…”

“Yeah, they kinda relocated after I got home… There’s two in my bedroom, one in the bathroom. Don’t judge…”

She nodded a little and pointed towards the closest door, “Which room is that?”

“Bedroom.”

“Can I go in there to grab a chair?”

“Sure.” he nodded, 

* * *

She poured up some coffee for them and brought it over to the couch. He thanked her and smiled as she sat down in the chair next to him.

He reached for the closest coffee cup, and took a sip.

She mirrored him.

“So, did you find the way without trouble?”

She nodded, “Turns out my aunt lives just a couple blocks away from you…”

“Really?”

She nodded, then gestured to the sandwiches, “Come on, dig in…”

He smirked, “Thanks, no need to tell me twice.”

He reached for one with what looked like raspberry jam, but waited until Emily had chosen one as well before he actually took a bite.

“You made these?” he asked before he had time to swallow the bite.

She nodded.

“Really?” he swallowed and grinned, “They’re amazing!”

“You think?”

“Yeah!” he nodded, “I’d probably accidentally munch on these until I got sick…”

She chuckled. “Well, maybe avoid that?”

“I’ll do my best…” He winked at her, took another bite and savored it.

* * *

“So, what did you think about last night?” he asked after a while. He still had his bad leg up on the cushion, but he was sitting up and twisted sideways to see Emily better.

“I had a lot of fun.” She smiled, “You?”

He nodded, “Turned out to be a way better evening than what I had planned.”

She smiled, tucking a strand of thick brunette hair behind her ear.

“There’s at least a couple of moments from last night which ought to be marked down in history books.” he winked at her.

“Like, just before I took an Uber home?”

He nodded, “Yeah, that one for sure!”

She smiled, “Yeah, that was nice.”

He nodded, “We were really good at that, weren’t we?”

“We were.” She nodded, “But, you know what? Pretty sure we could get even better at it, if we practiced.”

“Well, practice makes perfect..” Metal nodded, “I wouldn’t mind practicing that.”

“Me neither.” She added a little content sigh. “I wouldn’t mind practicing that for a long, long while.”

He nodded a little, and they fell silent for a short minute.

She got up and walked over to her purse on the counter, dug out an envelope and removed something from it before she returned to the table.

Before she sat down, she stopped beside the armrest of the couch, bent down and placed a quick kiss along Metal’s jaw before she stood back up.

“Hey, not fair!” he frowned as he tried to catch her with his right arm, “I wasn’t ready!”

“You saying you need more practice?”

He chuckled a bit, “Yeah, lots of it.”

She smiled and stepped closer once again, this time taking better time to actually kiss him.

* * *

He could feel her lips curve in a smile as they kissed. Her rose scented hair tickled against the sides of his face.

He felt something being placed on his abdomen as they kissed, but was too busy to check it out immediately.

If it had been possible, this was one of those moments he wished to freeze and live in forever.

Then she stood back up. “Yup, we’re really good at that…”

He just nodded.

She sat back down in the chair.

He checked what had been placed on him during the kiss. A small chuckle escaped him as he realized what it was.

“Thought you’d might like a set of copies.” She shrugged, “I didn’t know if you were that kind of guy who thinks it’s fun to keep memorabilia like that, or not… But…”

“Thanks,” he chuckled and glanced at the pictures of the two of them. It was pictures of questionable quality, taken by phone during their night out. The pictures were kinda blurry, but it was easy enough to read their expressions and how much they both enjoyed just being there.

One picture showed them sitting by the booth. One of Emily’s friends had taken that one. A couple more pictures from the bar, a picture from when they sat on a bench outside the kebab place. And the last one was a selfie where he had used the opportunity to swoop down and place a kiss on her cheek.

“Photographic evidence of me kissing you.” He smirked, “You sure you trust me with that?”

She chuckled, “Yeah.”

“Cause I’ll show it to my guys, you know that?” he teased.

“I think they might already have seen a better kiss than that, live.” She chuckled and rolled her eyes.

He nodded a little, then he held up the selfie one, “What do you think? Would this one go well with the refrigerator door?”

“Probably…” she nodded, “You want me to see if there’s a vacant magnet there?”

“Nah, it can wait.” he smiled at her.


	14. Glances

Emily stopping by almost daily had become the norm. So he was not surprised when there was a knock at the door around 4 p.m..

“Coming!” he called out and reached for his crutches, but before he had even managed to get his leg down from where he had it propped up, the door unlocked and both Trent and Sonny stood in the opening.

“Thought we’d make it easy for you…” Sonny drawled as he dangled the key he had used to unlock the door with from between his fingers.

“Oh, okay…” Metal nodded, “Come in, sit down.”

“You know, if I didn’t have this much self-esteem, I might have taken that look on your face badly…” Trent smirked, “Expecting someone else?”

Full Metal shrugged, “Don’t really know… Don’t have any confirmed plans.”

“-But you were thinking we’d be someone else?” Sonny fished, “Maybe a short, brunette, nurse?”

The guilty look on his face was all the confirmation the Texan needed.

“Wait, you?” Trent’s eyebrows inched closer together, “You’ve met someone?”

“How blind-drunk were you a couple of weeks ago?” Sonny twisted around to glance at Trent, “That scary SOB over there spent almost the entire night getting to know that nurse we talked to at the hospital over there better…”

“Really?”

Sonny nodded.

“How is she here? Shouldn’t she still be at the other side of the world?”

“Apparently the hospital here is the sister-hospital of the one I was brought to there…” Metal shrugged, “And she works a few months here, and a few months there…”

“Really? What are the odds?”

“Pretty damn low.” Metal admitted, “But, crazier things has happened.”

“Yeah, like Sonny having a girlfriend?” Trent offered, earning himself a hard push from the Texan at his side.

Metal gestured for them to come closer, “Come on, find somewhere to sit down.”

“So, how have you been?” Trent asked as he sat down in the armchair. Sonny went for the opposite end of the couch.

“Good.” He answered, “That night out was a bit much, but other than that… Good.”

“Too much hobbling around?”

He nodded, “Yeah, I… I barely managed to move around here the next couple of days.”

“Ouch…” Trent sympathized.

“Well, you should’ve seen our trusty medic the next day…” Sonny chuckled, “He looked like someone had dug him up the night before and given him the Frankenstein treatment.”

“Yeah?”

Trent nodded a little, “Yeah, think I was about half past dead…”

“-And I missed it…” Metal chuckled and leaned forward to adjust how his leg was propped up on a pillow on the table.

Sonny nodded.

Trent just shook his head, “So this girl of yours…”

“Look at him, trying to change the topic…” Sonny smirked, “Give it up Sawyer.”

Metal chuckled, “Emily? She’s… Too good for me. Any way I look at it.”

“-And here I was, thinking we would roast Trent for a little while longer…” Sonny sighed, “Alright-alright…”

Trent shook his head a little before he looked at Metal, “Too good for you? Can’t be…”

“She’s…” Metal chuckled a bit, “She’s… Amazing.”

“Well, I’ve never claimed that you’re a man of many words, but…” Sonny shrugged, “You’ve gotta be able to do better than that…”

“What can I say?” Metal shook his head, “Ever met someone who feels like pure light and warmth?”

That was a statement uncharacteristic enough to draw laughter from the two other men.

“No, I mean it!” Metal sighed and swatted at Trent who was closest to him, “It’s impossible not to relax and feel all warm and safe when she’s around.

“Well, anyway… She’s gotta be made of something else, or just love scary stuff.” Sonny smirked, “Working at a hospital in the middle of IED central -AND- falling for you… Girl probably has more reasons to have PTSD than all of Bravo team combined.”

Trent chuckled, while Metal fixed Sonny with an almost lethal glare.

“See what I mean? Scary!” Sonny asked Trent, pointing at Full Metal, “The guy’s got a busted leg which looks like a hybrid between a twig and a porcupine, and I still want to run and hide when he gives me that look.”

Metal couldn’t help but chuckle, “Twig and porcupine… Pretty damn spot on…”

Sonny nodded and glanced over at Metal’s leg, “Any progress wit the leg?”

“Had X-rays done last week…” he shrugged, “Thigh and knee are looking good. Gonna get the top part of this contraption taken off some time next week.”

“And the rest of the leg?” Trent pressed.

“Most of it is looking a lot better than last time.”

“But?”

Metal folded his hands at the back of his head and sighed, “The open one I had down by my ankle, that’s not healing like it should…”

“Non-union, or? Delayed?” Trent asked.

“Well, it had started showing some regrowth, but…” Full Metal shook his head, “The surgeon still thought it might be best to put in a graft, said we were going to give it a couple more weeks and decide then…”

“So, the waiting game got a fifth quarter?” Sonny asked.

“Feels like it…” Metal nodded.

“Excited about getting some of that frame off?” Trent shot in.

“Yeah….” Metal smirked, “Excited about maybe fitting into something other than shorts and extremely oversized cargo pants.”

“Yeah, maybe just oversized cargo pants will do?” Sonny mused, “Pants are still going to struggle with fitting around your lower leg.”

“Mhm…” he nodded and placed a hand over the two circles closest to his hip, “But so far, getting things around these two things has been the hardest…”

“Gonna be weird moving your knee again, huh?”

“Sure is. Probably won’t be much fun the first couple of weeks.”

“It won’t…” Trent reassured, “I remember when I was finally allowed to move my elbow again… I don’t know how many times I almost wished they had just cut the damn thing off right below my shoulder.”

“Well, my goal is to get better range of motion in my knee than you have in that elbow…”

“What are you talking about? My range of motion is just fine…”

“Yeah? Then extend BOTH your arms in front of you and try to tell us there’s no difference between them…” Sonny leaned forward to better look at Trent.

“I didn’t claim it was _perfect_ , I claimed it was just fine. It’s nothing that keeps me out of duty.” Trent shot back, but still extended his arms in front of him, “I know very well that my right arm doesn’t go all the way straight, but who cares? I can still do everything this job requires of us, that’s good enough for me.”

Metal chuckled, “Well, that’s the thing… I don’t think I would be able to do much if my knee didn’t extend the last few degrees.”

“Probably right about that…” Trent shrugged.

* * *

After about two hours of the guys being there, there was another knock at his door.

“I’ll get it!” Sonny said and got up before Metal even had a chance of getting his leg down from the pillow.

“It’s probably Emily…” Metal smirked as he continued lifting his leg down from the table.

“Yeah, and I’ll get the door.” Sonny said as he signed for Metal to stay put, “I’ll have the door open before you’re even up…”

Metal helped his leg back on the pillow as Sonny opened the door.

“Hello miss…” he grinned.

“Oh, hey…” Emily stalled, then looked past Sonny to see that he wasn’t the only visitor there. She made eye contact with Metal, “I could come back tomorrow…”

“No-no-no!” Metal shook his head, “Come on in, these won’t bite.”

She chuckled, “You sure?”

“They would have to answer to me if they did…” Metal nodded.

“He’s right, ma’am.” Sonny reassured.

Emily smirked and stepped inside, nodded towards Sonny and towards Trent, before she went to sit down beside Full Metal.

Metal let his left arm drape across the back of the couch as Emily sat down next to him, a content smile on his lips.

She tucked her legs up under herself and leaned in next to him. He leaned a bit closer to her as well.

“So, how have you been today?”

He shrugged, “Better. Not that much pain.”

“Good…” she smiled.

“And your day?”

“SLOW…” she sighed, “But that’s good for everyone else… So…”

“Emergency room today?” he mused.

“Yeah.” She nodded, then she looked towards the two soldiers she didn’t know quite as well, “And you two? Having a good day?”

They both nodded.

* * *

Trent couldn’t help but sneak glances at one of his best friends and the woman beside him.

He couldn’t remember the last time he had seen Full Metal this at peace with just sitting around. It was no secret that the other man’s comfort zone was where most people wet themselves out of fear, and that down-time usually brought a restless and snappy version of the greying soldier.

But Metal looked like he was just enjoying himself.

He was pretty sure Metal was getting into that part of his recovery where he wasn’t in too much pain to be restless at times, if not all the time. 

Trent had been there when Metal was with Kiara. But even back then the man had never been able to settle down like this. Not without knowing that the next OP was just around the corner. He had no doubt that Emily was good for Full Metal.

He focused on his coffee for a while, he didn’t want either of them to notice that he was staring.

While Sonny was busy telling one of his infamous Texas-tall-tales, he allowed himself to take a good long look at the fresh couple. He didn’t know Emily well enough to know how she acted around other people, but she seemed incredibly comfortable with Metal’s arm draped over her shoulder, like she belonged just there. He knew Metal though, and he couldn’t remember the last time he had seen the other man so genuinely happy just to exist in a moment.

He hoped that it would last. That he one day would be able to see his friend kiss her in front of a full church, or at a courthouse, or some equivalent. He wished that for Full Metal.


	15. Stay the night

“Hey Em… Wanna come over later?” he asked as she picked up, “I was thinking I’d whip up some dinner for you for once. -Much easier moving around the kitchen now that the top part of my frame is gone…”

“Hey…” she tried to smile, “That sounds lovely, but… I’m not having the best day…”

“Oh?” his brows knit together, “Anything I can help with?”

A small chuckle left her lips, “No, I don’t think so…”

“Can I ask what’s messing up your day?”

“Being a girl…”

“Huh?”

“Cramps.” She clarified, “From Hell…”

“Oh…” he frowned. “That’s not good…”

She nodded, then realized he wouldn’t see it since they were on the phone. “No, it sucks.”

“Want company?”

She didn’t answer straight away. She really wanted to be with him, but she didn’t want him to stress with getting over to her place, and all she really had energy for was to be glued to the couch with a couple of heating pads.

“-I could ask one of my buddies to drive me over…”

“You don’t have to…” she smiled a bit, “I can drive over to you…”

“But, if you’re not feeling well…”

“Just don’t judge me for my outfit today…” she chuckled a bit, “-Or my accessories…”

He chuckled a bit, “Would I ever?”

“I don’t know… But I’m not crawling out of my oversized sweatpants today…”

“You don’t have to…” he reassured, “By the way, how does mashed potatoes, chicken, vegetables and gravy sound?”

“You don’t have to…”

“Well, what if I want to?” he shrugged, “You’ve been treating me too good up until now, let me try to start to make up for it…”

She chuckled a bit, “You don’t need to do that… And I’m not really sure about my appetite today either…”

“Okay…” he nodded, “Well, how about I don’t make the food straight away, then we can see later this evening if you change your mind…”

“Okay, I’ll be over in 30-40 minutes.”

“Alright, I’ll see you then…” he nodded, “You sure you don’t want me to come to you instead?”

“I’m sure.”

* * *

“Twenty seconds!” his voice called out from inside the apartment when she knocked on the door. Not too long afterwards, he opened the door and looked down at her.

“Hey…” she blinked up at him.

“Oh…” he frowned a bit, “You look like someone kicked your puppy…”

She chuckled, “No, then I’d be furious… Right now I just feel like I could eat a ton of chocolate and sleep for a week…”

He nodded a bit, “I can’t offer much, but… Do you want a hug?”

She nodded slightly.

He let go of the handles of his crutches as she moved closer, and wrapped his arms around her once she was close enough.

A couple seconds later he hopped a bit backwards to take a better look at her, “Why does your midriff feel like lava?”

“Oh, that’s my hot water bottle…” she blushed.

“How?” he looked down at her with wide eyes, “How do you willingly put something THAT hot against yourself? And how does? You can’t just place a hot water bottle inside the lining of sweatpants and think it’ll stay up, right? -I know that’s a trick with jeans…”

“It’s a YuYu-bottle… And it kinda has to be that hot to help…”

“What’s a YuYu-bottle?”

“It’s a really long hot water bottle…” she explained and lifted her hoodie up to show the two YuYu-bottles she had wrapped around her off. “Best invention ever…”

He frowned at them, “Still don’t think it’s smart to wear something that hot… You’ll get a burn…”

“Only superficial… I usually don’t get burns.”

“Only…” he frowned, “Em, that’s not okay…”

She almost scowled up at him.

“What I’m meaning, you shouldn’t need to basically hurt yourself in order to get some relief from that sort of pain…” he hobbled a bit closer again and wrapped an arm around her shoulders, “How bad is the pain?”

“Well, I kinda want to give myself a hysterectomy without anesthesia, with a dull butter-knife.” She mumbled into his chest.

“Ouch, that doesn’t sound good…” he frowned, “You’ve been to the doctor with this, haven’t you?”

She nodded, “A shit-ton of times… Ever since I was in my teens.”

“And there’s nothing he can do to help you?”

“I’m pretty sure there are at least a few things that would help…”

“But?”

“But the last ten doctors I’ve been to about this hasn’t taken my symptoms seriously.”

“Want me to bust some heads?” he leaned back a bit to look down at her.

She chuckled a bit, “Maybe you should wait until your leg is healed?”

“Pretty sure I could at least scare a doctor or two straight…” he shrugged.

She smirked, “No… You don’t need to…”

“You for once look like you should sit down…” he rubbed his hand up and down her back.

She nodded a bit.

“Come on now, get your pretty little ass over to that couch, get comfy… I’ll try to fix some hot chocolate or something.”

“You don’t have to…”

He bent down enough to place a kiss on top of her head, “Go get comfy on the couch…”

* * *

Not too many minutes later, he scooted over in an office chair he used to get around the kitchen in when his hands needed to be preoccupied with something else than crutches.

“Here, it’s just that instant stuff, but…”

She smiled softly as she accepted the mug he handed her, “Thank you…”

“How does just cuddling up on the couch and streaming a movie sound?” he tilted his head as he asked her.

“Sounds like just my speed today…”

Metal winked, “I’ll just scoot over and grab my walking sticks, so I won’t have to do that later…”

She nodded a bit and reached for the blanket which was draped over the back of the couch.

* * *

Emily had picked an action flick, but 40 minutes into the movie she was fast asleep with her head on his lap. She had her legs tucked up towards her chest, one hand rested on top of his good knee.

His right hand had ended up resting on top of her hip.

Every now and then she twisted a little in her sleep, probably trying to find a position to ease the cramping.

He wished he knew how to properly help her. He wasn’t doubting that her cramps had to be painful, the lava-temperature heating pads she voluntarily wore was scaring him. There had to be something wrong, he just didn’t know what.

Of course he didn’t know much about period cramps, he was a guy, he had never experienced it himself. But he did have a sister, and he had a mom, a couple of aunts, and he had been in a couple of relationships through the years.

He knew the experience was different for everyone, but most of the women he knew didn’t have that much of a problem with it, only one he could think of was one of his aunts on his dad’s side of the family. He knew she had ended up having a few surgeries for it, but that was about the extent of his knowledge.

His sister, on the other hand, was the complete opposite. She had once claimed she didn’t really feel it, that her only concern was to not bleed through.

But the way it seemed to affect Emily, that couldn’t be normal, in any way.

* * *

She couldn’t even straighten up when she woke back up, her brother would have claimed she walked like a gut-shot deer if he saw her.

She didn’t want to voice her complaints about how much everything between her bellybutton and knees felt, she felt bad about complaining about her cramps in front of Metal, or even admitting to them. She was pretty sure his leg had served him up some of the worst pain imaginable.

And her cramps were… They were worse than regular cramps, she was certain of that, but it had to be nothing compared to how his leg had been.

She only refilled her heating pads, found some painkillers in her purse and went to the bathroom before she sat back down beside Metal, “You okay if I fall asleep on you again?”

He nodded a little and patted his good thigh.

She curled up next to him again and within long, she was fast asleep again.

* * *

A couple of hours later he was about to fall asleep himself. He knew sleeping on the couch wouldn’t be the best idea for him, and he was pretty sure that went for Emily as well.

He let his hand trail up to her shoulder, gave it a squeeze and rubbed it a bit, “Hey, Em… How about we go to bed instead?”

“Hmmm?”

“Bed.” He smirked, “I was thinking, maybe we should go to bed instead of sleeping here on the couch…”

She blinked a bit before rubbed at her eyes, “I should probably get home…”

“-Or you could just spend the night…” he shrugged.

She closed her eyes a bit, her eyebrows creeping closer together in thought, “You think?”

He nodded, “Yeah. One night’s gotta be the first one, right? Why not this one?”

She opened her eyes again and nodded.

“Yeah?”

She nodded a bit more, “Yeah. But I’m kinda scared I might bump into you during the night…”

“Don’t worry about that…” he shook his head, “I think I’ll be able to handle that by now. -And you haven’t really moved much the past four and a half hours, so I don’t really think of it as something there’s a high risk for…”

She shrugged.

“So, why don’t you go use the bathroom first, and I’ll make sure you have a fresh pillow…”

She nodded and sat up, leaving a quick kiss on his cheek.


	16. First day back, kinda.

The next morning he woke up well before her.

Her head laid on his right shoulder and he could feel the weight of her right knee resting on his right thigh.

She had her right arm draped across his chest, her hand hanging over his left shoulder.

He knew she had been up once during the night, he never slept like he was dead unless it was on the plane back from a mission. And her getting up beside him was enough to wake him for a bit. She had been gone for a while, and when she came back her hot water bottles were almost too hot for him to be near and she seemed a bit less tense than when she had gotten up.

Right now she seemed a little bothered by something, even in her sleep.

He laid there studying her for a long time. One thing was for sure, she probably wasn’t the kind who noticed she was being watched without knowing it already. Quite unlike most of the people he held closest. Most of his teammates for instance would wake up within a minute if you just kept looking at them. Trent was the scariest one of them all, usually he’d wake up within ten seconds flat and look directly at you.

He kept on looking at her. She had full lips, with peaked cupid’s bow. Her nose was a bit wide, yet it was still a delicate button nose. Her hairline did that funny thing where it went down in a point in the middle of her forehead. Her hair and eyebrows had about the same warm brown color, he didn’t know if she colored either, and frankly he didn’t care. She looked great to him whatever the answer was. From the inner end of her left eyebrow, a thin scar stretched towards her right eyebrow. It was a thin and pale line, which he hadn’t noticed before. But he had noticed her freckles, which was painted across her forehead, her cheeks and nose and a few on her chin.

He felt happy laying there, just watching her. Thinking he’d never run tired of it.

He almost wanted to cuss his phone out when it decided to start blaring with an incoming call, and Emily stirred beside him.

He spared a short glance at the screen before he answered. _Work-Havoc_. He frowned.

“Yeah? Hello?” he whispered, hoping that Emily wouldn’t wake up.

“Hey Full Metal…” it was Blackburn’s voice on the other end of the line, “How are you doing?”

“That really depends on why you’re calling…” he yawned, playing up his tiredness, “What time is it?”

“6:48…” Blackburn answered, “I’m sorry to call you this early, especially since you’re out with the injury and all…”

Metal smirked a bit, “I’m doing pretty okay… Still a long way to go before I’m even ready to think about getting back in action, though… But, there’s got to be a reason for this call, right?”

“Yeah…” Blackburn admitted, “We’ve got an OP going live in a couple of hours. One of the regular desk riders are out with the flu… And we need more brainpower here, your skill set would make you perfect for this one.”

“Brainpower?” Metal chuckled a bit, “You sure you didn’t dial the wrong number?”

“You think you’re up for it? We can arrange a good chair for you, and something to keep that leg of yours up on…”

“You’re really that desperate to find someone?”

“…Yes.”

“Dammit…” he sighed and looked down at Emily, she seemed to have slumbered off completely again, “What can you tell me over the phone?”

“Not much, but if we fail this OP…” Blackburn stalled a bit, uncharacteristic for the man, “Let’s just say that WW3 would be closer than ever.”

“Fucking fantastic…” he sighed, “Can you get someone to come pick me up? I’m still not driving.”

“Of course. How much time do you need?”

“As slow as I am right now?” Metal calculated, “About 35 minutes, maybe longer…”

“Alright, I’ll send someone. If you need more time, he’ll wait.”

“Yeah, good.” Metal sighed, “And I’m not promising I’ll be ready for inspection. Not sure my issued pants will fit.”

“Don’t worry about it. If anyone decides to give you hell for showing up in a pair of Hello Kitty pajama pants or whatever you decide to show up in, they’ll have to answer to me.”

“Damn, now I wish I had a pair of Hello Kitty pants just for the hell of it.” Metal chuckled, “Alright, but I’ve gotta hang up to get ANYWHERE, see you at work.”

“Yeah, thanks a bunch!”

Metal nodded a bit, “Alright, bye.”

* * *

“Hey, uhhh…. Em…” he sighed as he shook her a bit.

“What?”

“Work called. They need me.”

She pushed up on one elbow and stared at him, “What did you just say?”

“My boss called. They need me there.” He swallowed, “Just in the planning part of it all, of course.”

“-But, you’re still…”

He nodded, “Yeah, I know. But my boss made it sound critical.”

She looked him up and down, “You think you’re up for it?”

“I’m gonna sit in a chair and use my head.” Metal smirked, “And not for head-butting people… Yeah, I think I’ll manage.”

She couldn’t help but smile a bit, “Okay, guess you’ve got a point.”

He nodded, “I don’t know when I’ll be home, but you’re more than welcome to stay while I’m gone. If you want to…”

She shrugged a bit, “Your bed IS really comfy…”

He nodded, “I’ve been planning to get a second key made, but with the leg and all… I haven’t gotten around to it…”

She tilted her head a bit.

“Ms. Wright in apartment 64 has a spare, in case you manage to lock yourself out by accident, I’ve told her how you look.” Metal shrugged, “And if you need to go home for whatever reason, you know the door locks automatically…”

She nodded, “Will I be able to reach you on the phone while you’re at work?”

“Only if I’m not in the room where we do all the planning and stuff.” He shrugged, “We have to leave our phones outside.”

“Okay.” She nodded, “I’ll send a text then, if I decide to go home to my own apartment. That way you’ll know if you can expect to find me here or not…”

He nodded, “Yeah, sounds good. But I’ve gotta get up now…”

She nodded and sat up so she wasn’t blocking his way.

“I hope you feel better today.” He said once he was seated as well, before he leaned over and placed a quick kiss.

She glanced down for a moment, before she looked back up and tilted her head, “I hope work doesn’t drain you completely today.”

He winked, “I’ll manage.”

* * *

38 minutes later he was sitting in the back of the car Blackburn had sent to pick him up.


	17. Breakfast

He didn’t come back home before the next morning. But the fact that he hadn’t gotten any texts from Emily had him hopeful.

The apartment was quiet when he unlocked the door, but then again it was barely 7:30 in the morning. He hobbled inside, he couldn’t wait to lay down and get his leg up. Being awake and at work for about 24 hours had not done his leg any favors.

He left his backpack right inside the door, checked that he had his phone in his pocket, made a quick detour for his bathroom before he went to bed.

Emily was still there, curled up on ‘her’ side of the bed. He smiled a tired smile, lifted the covers away from his side, before he fluffed the pillows his leg would rest on, then he stripped down and got into bed. He honestly didn’t have the energy to put his clothes away like he normally did. 

He grimaced as he lifted his left leg in after himself. Of course he hadn’t been able to just sit around like Blackburn had suggested. No, because that was something he had never learned how to do. He needed to be where it all happened, he had to feel that he was actively taking part of stuff. And for the last 24, that had meant hobbling around inside the command room.

Lisa Davis had at one point said that she was tempted to Duct tape him to his chair so he’d get some time off his leg, and she would have done it if she didn’t know that he’d have no problems getting loose.

Right now, he would have been grateful if she had done just that. His leg was angry with him.

“You’re back…” a sleepy voice mumbled beside him.

He looked down and saw her blinking tiredly at his side. “Yup…”

“How’d it go?” she yawned, “I know you can’t give details, but… Success?”

“Yeah, success.” he nodded and laid down. He couldn’t help the grimace which fluttered across his face.

“And how are you doing?”

“Tomorrow’s gonna be a rest day…” he gritted out, “Or, you know… When I wake up…”

She nodded, “And your leg, right now?”

“It’ll be better once that pill I just took starts working.”

She nodded again.

“How was your day yesterday?”

She shrugged, “About the same as the day before, but I didn’t have you to keep me company…”

“Still a lot of cramps, huh?” he asked, tilting his head to look at her.

She nodded a bit, “They should start to get better today…”

“Yeah? There’s a… It’s predictable?”

“Kinda…” she nodded, “First three-to-four days are the worst, usually.”

He nodded, “I hope you’re feeling better soon…”

“Right back at you…” she winked and crawled a bit closer.

He wrapped his arm around her shoulder and helped pull her in next to him, then he pressed his lips against her forehead for a soft kiss.

* * *

He didn’t even notice that he drifted off to sleep before he woke up hours later. Another thing he hadn’t noticed was her crawling out of bed, but the smell of fresh coffee and bacon wafted through the bedroom door.

He moved a bit, testing how bad it would be to actually get up. His leg wasn’t impressed by his decision, but it didn’t flare up as bad as he had expected.

He looked at his watch, it was still a couple of hours until he could take another dose. All in all, he was doing better than expected.

He sat up and started to get dressed, chuckling a bit when he realized that Emily had taken the clothes he had just dumped on the floor when he went to bed, folded them and placed them on the chair beside his nightstand. He must’ve been in some deep sleep to not notice that she got up, or tidied after him.

He reached for the t-shirt he had meant to wear yesterday, but hadn’t because of the whole getting called into work situation, and the sweatpants which actually were baggy around his frame. He was looking forward to not having that metal contraption around his leg at all, and being able to wear regular jeans again.

When he was ready to get up, it didn’t cause as much pain as he was prepared for. Hobbling towards the door to the rest of the apartment wasn’t as bad either. All in all, he felt a lot better than he thought he would’ve when he went to bed that morning.

Emily turned around and looked at him when he entered the combined living room and kitchen. She offered up a smile, “Good morning.”

He smirked a bit, “Think it’s afternoon or something, but… Good morning.”

“When you work through the night, any time you get up is the morning. No matter if it’s 8 a.m. or 8 p.m. -Or 2p.m. like it actually is.” Emily smirked, “Nightshift words of wisdom…”

He chuckled, “Okay…”

“Are you hungry?” she asked.

He nodded a little, “Yeah, kinda.”

He hobbled over to the kitchen table and sat down on one of the two chairs which had now returned to it. “How are you feeling today?”

“Better than yesterday.” She shrugged.

“-But still not good?” he tilted his head.

She sighed, “I’m not back to my normal yet…”

“Your normal?” he frowned.

She nodded, not adding any information.

“Does that mean you’re never all good?”

She chuckled a bit, but there was no humor in it. “No.”

“What does it mean then?”

“I don’t know… I can’t really explain it…” she turned around to face him again, “When I’m back to my normal, I’m good enough to not think about it. But I’m still… There’s still these random aches and pains, but they’re barely registering. Say a 1 to 2 on that famous pain scale of ours.”

Metal nodded slowly, “That’s not normal, is it?”

She shook her head, “No. It shouldn’t be…”

“Then why haven’t your doctor done something about it?”

She chortled, “Because many doctors has the instinct to say ‘a bit of period pain is normal’, when you claim that it basically renders you useless for days.”

“That’s just not right…”

She nodded, “But, it’s life.”

“How? I’ve seen you these past days… How do you manage to… How can you work, how can you travel across the world and work in a place with that much to do?”

“Because when I do that, I’m on a double dose of contraceptives.” She sighed, “I don’t have a period while I’m there. And I have less aches and pains when I’m not on my period as well, when I do that.”

“So, why don’t you do that here?” he studied her, “If it really helps you?”

She shrugged, “My doctor doesn’t give me the prescriptions for it when I’m here. Says it’s not healthy and all that, and that I shouldn’t need it. But, she’s willing to give it when I’m traveling over there, because it’s a high-stress environment, and I need to be at the top of my game…”

“Can I please meet this doctor of yours and scare some sense into her?” he begged, “Only a little, I promise not to cause physical damage.”

She chuckled a bit, “No… But thanks for the offer.”

He sighed, “How do you deal with it when you’re at home and working?”

“I’ve got the greatest boss ever…” she smiled, “She’s one of my mom’s best friends, and basically my fake aunt. And she knows I struggle with this thing. So I get to schedule my shifts with a heavy workload when I’m alright and few shifts when it’s that time…”

“That’s good.”

She nodded, “Yeah, I’m lucky to have her.”

“Hey, we all need someone great in our corner some times…” he smirked, “I know it’s early on… But when you feel ready for it, I could join you for one of your doctor appointments to help you get your point across. I promise not to scare your doctor… -Only if you want me to, of course…”

She nodded a little, “I think I’d appreciate that.”

He nodded, “I just don’t get how… When I go to the doctor, I always walk out of there with a solution or a referral for something that’ll lead to a solution… If you’ve been to your doctors with this since you were in your teens, how come they haven’t figured something out yet?”

She sighed and nodded, “Well. I blame that on this most likely being a disease which mostly affects women, or people who has been born with female anatomy…”

“I don’t know if you’ve already told me this, but do you think you know what is causing this?”

“Well, I’m guessing endometriosis…” she turned back to the stove and flipped something before turning back to him, “-Or adenomyosis…”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah, those two runs in my family…” she nodded, “And, I’ve got most of the symptoms for it.”

“I think my aunt had one of those…” he said, furrowing his brows, “It was a long word I never really remember.”

“It’s actually pretty common, so that’s very possible.”

“Yeah?”

“About 1 in 10 people who were born with female anatomy.” Emily nodded, “So, within that group of people, it’s just as common as diabetes. But of course, diabetes affects people who were born with male anatomy as well. An even better example is Celiac’s disease… That’s about 1 in 100, yet most people will know the most crucial stuff about it if you were to say that you have it. They’d most likely know that you can’t eat anything with gluten.”

Metal nodded, “Yeah, even I know that… I’m not really sure about what happens, but I know that people with Celiac’s can’t have regular flour and other stuff with gluten because they get sick from it.”

Emily nodded, “Enough about that, how are you feeling today?”

“A lot better than I think I have a right to…” he smirked, “My leg’s a lot better than I thought it would be…”

“That’s good.” She smiled.

He nodded as she lifted the last item in the pan over to a plate. Then she turned the stove off and grabbed the two plates to bring them over to the table where Metal sat.

“Figured most people like eggs and bacon, so that’s what for breakfast today.” She shrugged.

“Oh, yum…”

“I hit jackpot?”

“Yeah, you did!” he grinned, “You’re too kind.”

She shook her head, “I promise that’s not always.”

“Well, so far…” he shrugged.


	18. Graft

A few weeks later he was waking up from the surgery where the surgeon put a graft where his fractured ankle wasn’t healing as it should.

He found Emily sitting by his bed when he woke up. She had her feet kicked up on the side of his bed, and was submerged in a thick book.

“What are you reading?” his voice was a little groggy from being under, maybe it was from being intubated or having some kind of laryngeal mask during the surgery. But his head felt fine, they had obviously made a mix which didn’t mess him up too bad.

“Hello there…” she smiled, “I’m reading Jack Reacher again…”

“Oh…?” he yawned, “How’s he doing?”

“Just got shot in the chest…” she tsked, “But, it’s only the third book in the series…”

“You’ve read it before?”

“A few times…” she nodded, “It’s kinda a comfort thing…”

“A comfort thing?” he raised his eyebrows a bit, “A guy getting shot in the chest?”

“Not exactly that.” She shook her head, “More the big, tough guy who’s pretty much invincible.”

“Lucky guy…”

“I’d say you’ve got a lot in common with him…” she winked.

“Oh yeah? I don’t feel so invincible right now. Haven’t for months…”

“I’m not saying he doesn’t get hurt…” Emily rolled her eyes, “I’m saying he always gets through it…”

“Can’t promise I’ll get through this one and be as good as I once was.”

“Well, judging by all those scars you’ve got all over… You’ve always gotten through things this far…”

He flashed a cocky smirk, “You’ve been studying my scars?”

“I- uh…” she blushed and closed her eyes, “We’ve been together for a couple of months now. And sleeping in the same bed for a good portion of that time. I’d say it’s pretty inevitable.”

“Yeah, guess so…” he nodded, “So, is it right? Do ‘chicks dig scars’?”

“I guess some do…” she shrugged.

“And you?”

“They don’t revolt me…” she shrugged, “But they do pique my interest. So I’m kinda proud that I haven’t asked where they all come from…”

Metal chuckled, “Pretty sure I could rattle off an explanation for at least half of them…”

“The others are from too classified stuff?”

He chuckled, “No. You’ve seen how many scars I have, do you really expect me to remember where all of them came from?”

She chuckled, “Okay, maybe not.”

He nodded, “Any scar in particular you want to know the reason for?”

She nodded, “A few…”

“Let’s start with one…”

“There’s one on your right thigh. A third of an inch wide, four inches long…”

“Scouts camp when I was nine.” He frowned, “Learned that a dull knife never is your friend.”

“So not all of them are from line of duty badassery?”

“No, a good portion of them are from the time before that…” he shook his head, “Any other scar you want to know straight away?”

“You’ve got this… massive crisscross of scars by your right side…”

He nodded, “Yup. Diyala province, 2010… Our team got hit by an RPG. Some shrapnel cut me up pretty good. About half my team needed medical attention after that one…”

“You’re allowed to talk about where and when?”

“Sometimes.” He nodded, “Other times I might chose to say the wrong when and the wrong where…”

Emily chuckled.

“But, I think I’ll stick to just saying that I can’t tell you…”

“Alright…” Emily smiled, “I’d appreciate that.”

Metal nodded, “Figured you would.”


	19. Call

About five weeks later, he had been in a boot instead of the frame for a little more than two weeks. He still wasn’t cleared to put weight on his leg, but at least he wasn’t hobbling around with the skeleton for a greenhouse around his leg anymore.

The days went a lot faster now that he was a lot more mobile, and the pain had subsided a lot too.

He did the exercises he had gotten for his leg at home, but he had even started working out properly again, a couple of times a week. Exercises which were done without his legs, or adapted so he didn’t have to worry about his left leg. He finally felt like he was able to work his way back towards some kind of normal.

He was working his way back to the amount of pull-ups he had been able to do before the injury. Even though his upper body hadn’t been injured, he had still lost a lot of strength there over the months when he hadn’t been able to run around like usual, and he couldn’t even manage half of what he once had.

As he started fighting against the good old muscle fatigue, his phone started ringing.

He let go of the pull-up bar he had mounted on the wall and reached for the phone in his pocket.

“Yeah? You’ve reached Carter.”

“Hey kid…”

“Oh, mom. Hey!”

“I was wondering if you think you’re feeling well enough for a family dinner this weekend.”

“Family dinner?”

His mom hummed a yes.

“Yeah, sure…” he grinned, “What’s on the menu?”

“Haven’t decided yet.”

“Would it be okay if I brought someone?”

“That girlfriend you mentioned a few months back?”

“Yeah…” he nodded to himself, “Only if she’s off this weekend, I don’t know her schedule.”

“Of course she’s welcome.” His mom replied, “Does she have any allergies that I would have to consider?”

“Not anything which has come up in conversation, but she doesn’t like nuts in stuff.”

“Well, looks like you two are a match then.” His mom chuckled, “I’ve gotta say, as big and scary as you try to act, all of that gets ruined for someone if they ever see you eat cake which has hidden nuts in it. One would think you would be able to mask your reaction, but no… Some of the best grimaces one could think of flashes across that face of yours.”

He sighed, “And when are we going to stop teasing me for that one thing I just can’t handle when it comes to food? I’m not a picky eater or anything…”

“No, you’re not. That’s what makes it extra fun.”

He rolled his eyes a little, “So, this weekend… Which day?”

“I was thinking about Friday evening, but I’ve got to ask Amy and Rob first, I don’t know how they work on Fridays or if the kids have something scheduled.”

“Friday at five then? If you don’t call and reschedule…”

“Yup, same time as usual.”

* * *

Later that evening, he was sitting on the couch with Emily next to him.

“My mom called earlier today…”

She nodded against his shoulder.

“Wondered if we wanted to come over for dinner on Friday. You could finally meet my family…” He looked down at her, “Are you free? -And do you want to come?”

She nodded against his shoulder again, “It’d be nice to meet your family. You know, more than being a bystander to a facetime call with your sister a long time ago…”

He smirked, “I had pretty much forgotten about that…”

“Well, we had you on some pretty potent painkillers, I’m surprised you remember anything at all…”

“Guess you’ve got a point…” he nodded a bit, “I was pretty out of it…”


	20. Family dinner pt.1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, got terribly sidetracked by Whumptober...   
> And kiinda wrote myself into a corner I'm not sure how I'm gonna get out of here.  
> Figured the best way to get past it is the regular method.  
> Take a deep breath and jump in with both feet.

He adjusted his stance after he rang the doorbell. He heard his mom call out that she was coming to open the door. 

Emily moved a bit closer to his side, almost touching his arm with her shoulder. He leaned over so they actually touched.

“This is going to go great.”

“You sure?” she asked, looking up at him with big eyes.

“Yeah, my parents are going to love you.” he smiled, “Mom will probably find something to pick on about me though…”

Emily chuckled, “Moms got a way of doing just that, I guess…”

He nodded just as the door opened and his mom smiled at them. She was quick to pull her son into a hug, “Good to see you again, kid.”

“Hey mom…” he smiled, letting go of his crutches with one arm in order to wrap it around his mom’s shoulders, “Good to see you too…”

A second or two later, his mom stepped back and looked him up and down, “You should put on some weight…”

The combination of the defeated look on his face and his mom’s bluntness rendered Emily unable to hold back her laughter.

“-And you must be Emily…” Gina grinned, “You’re way cuter than my son managed to give you credit for. But then again, he’s never had a way with words.”

“Thank you. Yeah, I’m Emily…”

“I’m Gina, or ‘mom’, or ‘gramma’… Depends who’s talking with me…” Gina grinned back.

“Nice to finally meet the people who raised…” Emily trailed off, obviously not sure of what she was going to say next.

“Just call me what you usually do…” Metal chuckled, “Mom calls me ‘kid’, Amy calls me ‘Scotty’, Dad and Rob usually call me Full Metal, or Metal… Oldest nephew does the same, the two youngest just call me uncle most of the time…”

“Yeah?”

Gina nodded, “It’s true…”

“Okay, the people who raised Metal…” Emily blushed a bit, “Real big fan of your ‘work’ there…”

Gina grinned, “Come in, we can’t hang around here all day…”

* * *

“Hey Metal!” Rob got up and greeted the two newcomers, he wrapped an arm around Metal’s shoulders for a quick buddy hug, then he nodded at Emily and extended his hand “And Miss…”

“Parker. Emily Parker.” Emily smiled and shook Robert’s hand.

“Robert Harding. Most folks just call me Rob…”

“Nice to meet you Rob…” Emily smiled back.

“I hope my brother in law is treating you as well possible.”

She nodded, “He sure does…”

“Good.” Rob smiled, and turned towards Metal, “How have you been? How’s the leg coming along?”

“Good, it’s better.” Metal shrugged and put his bad leg forward to inspect the boot around his lower leg, “Still a bit to go, but it’s not that bad anymore.”

“Good.” Rob nodded, “You had me scared after that first time I visited you at the hospital. It was a little better the second time around, when we brought the kids along… But the last few times I’ve seen you, those haven’t exactly been the most reassuring…”

Metal nodded, “Yeah, I know… But it’s coming along nicely now. Still have to keep off it for another couple weeks, but then I’ll start to rebuild.”

Rob nodded along.

“So, where’s my sister and the kids?” Metal asked after he had taken his time to give the area a once-over.

“Jack forgot the time hanging out with friends, said he’d be over in 40 mikes or so, needed to run through the shower.” Rob chuckled, “Amy was picking up Chris and Helen from playdates, and got sidetracked in a conversation about mom stuff… She’s ‘on her way’, which probably means she’s finishing up her cup of coffee wherever she is…”

Metal chuckled, “Sounds like Amy… Chronically late.”

Emily chuckled, “Is it possible for someone who grew up alongside you, to be chronically late?”

Both men nodded.

“It’s the one thing I am not a fan of about his sister…” Rob nodded, “Cause I too am of the mindset that ‘on time’ is five minutes late.”

Metal nodded, “I warned you bro…”

“Yeah, worst part is, you really did…”

Metal nodded, “But I think I would like to sit down soon, where’s dad?”

“He’d been working in the garage all day, stepped into the bathroom a couple of minutes before you got here.”

Metal nodded a little, “Okay… Couch. Now.”


	21. Braids

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This did not go where I planned. At all.   
> But... It's written, and it might spark some sort of progress.   
> So why the hell not just post it.

Gina heard her son and son-in-law talk about ‘the good ol’ days’ in the living room as she kept stirring the pot. She never admitted to it, but she loved it when ‘her boys’ relived the fun they had experienced in the past.

Because they were both her boys. Alright, she had only given birth to one of them, but as soon as Scott had brought a couple of friends home on a leave, Rob had turned into one of ‘her boys’. Even though that list was long, she loved every one of them.

She heard them laugh about pulling a prank on Trent, a couple of decades back. Trent was of course also one of her boys. Almost all the team guys were.

The guys were laying the set up out for Emily, that this was back when Trent still slept like the dead, and all that. And explained that Trent from time to time have had long hair from time to time, always. Well, not before they made it into the SEAL teams, but from then on out.

Gina chuckled quietly to herself as Rob explained how he had snuck into one of the female barracks to recruit a woman for a hair braiding mission, and had ended up bringing no less than three girls along.

“Nowadays, you can barely look in Trent’s direction before he wakes up…” her son chuckled, “Back then, you could pretty much poke him with a stick and worst thing he’d do was to roll over and Charlie Mike.”

“What?” Emily asked.

“Continue Mission…” Rob clarified a bit, “And that mission would be to continue sleeping.”

“Oh, okay…” Emily chuckled, “I need a pocket dictionary or something…”

“You’ll get the hang of it…” her son chuckled, “Don’t worry…”

“Well, anyway… I come back with these three women. Light’s on in our quarters. Trent’s out COLD on the only couch we had…”

“Using a lot of space the rest of us wanted to enjoy as well…” her son shot in.

“And I direct myself to these fine women, and point in Trent’s direction…” Rob chuckled, “And I ask them if they would be so kind to braid this sleeping man’s out-of-regulation length hair, for some sort of…”

“Favor in return…” Her son shot in when Rob had to search for the right phrasing for a little too long.

“And they did?” Emily asked.

“They did.”

“They also braided his then not so impressive beard…”

“Oh, yeah… That thing was the patchiest thing you ever saw back then…” her son chuckled, “We gave him hell for it every chance we got.”

She heard Emily chuckle a bit, “Well, at least it’s grown in by now…”

“Yeah…”

“Anyway, that’s how most of our old team ended up as male strippers for an evening…”

“No?” Emily’s shocked disbelief was almost more than she could handle standing there in the kitchen, and Gina tried to keep her laughter as quiet as humanly possible. “Is it true?”

“I know there exists photographic evidence of it…” Rob chuckled.

“For real?”

“Yeah.” Her son admitted, “Sure does. But most of us drew a line at our last sock…”

“Not all of you?” Emily was almost too busy laughing to ask. Of course she had enough imagination to where the last sock might have been placed.

“Except one freak…” her son chuckled, Gina didn’t have to see them to know that Scott was pointing to his brother-in-law.

“-The sock slipped.”

“Nah-uh… Not buying it…” her son teased.

“It did. A little.” Rob chuckled, “Figured the crowd deemed it more respectable to pull it all off, compared to tugging it back in place.”

The three in the living room laughed a little more.

“Seriously though, when Metal gets back on his feet, you should ask for a performance.” Rob chuckled, “Man’s got more rhythm than you’d think…”

“What makes you think she hasn’t already seen the show?”

“Well, she sure hasn’t seen _THAT_ show, because your leg is not up for that yet…” Rob chuckled, “But a more age appropriate and handicap friendly one? Yeah, I could imagine that’s already been done… Ohhh… You’re blushing!”

Gina figured she had to save what she hoped would be her daughter-in-law in not too long, and stepped into the living room. “Rob, be nice to Emily…”

What she hadn’t been prepared for was Emily laughing so hard she barely could breathe, and her son blushing.

“Never mind…” she covered her smile with her hand and headed back towards the kitchen again, “Go on…”

“Now, the way you’re blushing… There’s gotta be a story there…”

“There’s really not…” Emily chuckled, “Is there, Metal?”

“No… Not really.” He answered, “Let’s just settle it with NOTHING went as I had planned.”

“Nothing, huh?” Emily chuckled some more.

“I had not planned on you feeling sorry for me. Or spending even more quality time with a bunch of ice packs… So yeah… Nothing went as I had planned.”

“Ouch…” Rob winced.

“Yup…” Metal sighed, “Gonna be a while before I attempt anything like that again…”

“Now, is there any chance those photographic evidences might come into my view any time in the future.”

“Tell you what, if Metal doesn’t show them to you within a reasonable amount of time, I will personally find a copy and let you see… At least him…” Rob chuckled.

“I’ll hold you to those words…”

“I don’t doubt it…”


	22. Amy, Chris and Helen

Metal smirked as his sister apologized for losing track of time.

His youngest nephew made a beeline for him as soon as he saw him, “Uncle!”

“Hey! Careful!” Rob put a hand out to slow his middle child.

“Oh, don’t worry…” Metal chuckled and leaned forward to prepare to lift Chris up like he always did before.

But Chris stopped in his tracks and took a good long look at the boot Metal had around his lower leg, before he stepped backwards.

“Does that hurt?”

“Not much anymore…” not too far from some sort of truth.

It didn’t seem to calm Chris much, worried brown eyes was glued to the plastic boot keeping Metal’s ankle in position.

“Hey, are you gonna give me that hug I thought was coming or not?”

Chris nodded a little and cautiously stepped closer.

Once Chris was close enough, Metal leaned forward, grabbed his nephew and lifted him up in a hug. Causing the child to laugh.

“See? I’m not too fragile to hug…” Metal shot Rob a look.

* * *

“Who’s she?” Chris asked once he leaned back from the hug.

“Hey.” Emily smiled, “I’m Emily.”

“Hey…” Chris smiled, “I’m Chris.”

“Emily. She’s my girlfriend.” Metal smiled.

“She’s pretty…”

“Thank you…” Emily smiled.

Metal grinned, “I think so too…”

Emily winked back at Metal.

“So, I heard you were on a playdate earlier…” Metal tilted his head, “Did you have fun?”

Chris nodded, “Lucas and I played we were motorcycle stars!”

“Oh, cool!” Metal grinned, “What sort of motorcycles.”

“Jumping!”

“Motocross…” Rob sighed, clearly not thrilled of his middle child’s latest obsession, even though the kid only had access to a pedal bike so far.

“That’s exciting…” Metal chuckled, “What does dad think of that?”

“That it’s dangerous…” Chris pouted, causing Metal to take a controlled breath in order not to burst out laughing.

“He’s probably right…” Metal smirked a little, “It’s really easy to crash when you jump with a bike.”

“Have you tried it?”

“Jumping with a bike, or crashing?”

Chris shrugged.

“I’ve tried both.” Metal sighed.

“COOL!”

“Broke my collarbone. That was not cool…” Metal shrugged, “Still have a bump on my left collarbone from breaking it.”

“Yeah?”

Metal nodded, and prodded his left collarbone. “Here…”

Chris felt over Metal’s t-shirt, and his eyes went wide. “Did that hurt?”

Metal nodded, “It did… And it hurt for a long time as well… So, be careful. Okay?”

Chris nodded a little, then looked towards the kitchen.

“Want to go say hey to grandma?”

Chris nodded, and Metal helped lift him back down, before the kid ran towards the kitchen.

* * *

Helen had sat on her mom’s arm as Amy went into the kitchen to say hello to Gina first, before she ran as fast as her two-year old self could towards her uncle as well.

This time Rob didn’t slow the inbound child, so Metal caught her, lifted her and tossed her in the air a couple of times. Causing Helen to laugh and scream with joy.

Then when he stopped, she reached her arms out to indicate she wanted a hug. Which she got.

“Untle!”

“Hey kid…” he smiled back.

Helen smiled, before she looked over at Emily with a questioning look.

“That’s Emily. She’s my girlfriend.” Metal explained.

Emily gave a little wave before she asked what Helen’s name was in return. But Helen wasn’t interested in answering and hid her face in Metal’s shoulder.

“Sorry… She’s shy…” Metal frowned looking over at Emily with an apologetic look.

“That’s alright…” Emily smiled back, “Everyone can be that from time to time…”

Helen looked back up at her for a moment, before she hid her face once again.


	23. Jack

“Sorry I’m late…” Jack apologized as he entered through the kitchen entrance, “We were playing football and time slipped away.”

“Oh, that’s alright…” Gina grinned, “Did you have fun?”

“Yeah.” Jack nodded, “Really sorry about losing track of time though…”

“Don’t worry about that. I’ve lived with your grandpa for decades, I know not to take it personally.”

Jack chuckled a bit.

“He was almost twenty minutes late to a dinner party in his own house. He was working in the garage earlier.”

“Grateful for it, but I have no idea how the two of you ended up together…”

Gina chuckled, “Yeah, me too Jack…

“Are all the others here already?”

“Yeah, your mom beat you by a ten minutes or so…”

“And Metal?”

“You really expect your uncle to be late?”

“No…” Jack chuckled, “Better go announce I’m here.”

Gina nodded.

* * *

“Look who finally showed up!” Rob grinned as his son entered through the open kitchen door.

“Yeah, got terribly sidetracked…” Jack shrugged as he stepped towards Full Metal, he held up a closed fist, ready for a fist-bump, “Good to see you again, Metal.”

“You too…” Metal grinned back.

Then he nodded towards Emily by Metal’s side and offered his hand for a handshake, “I’m Jack. Nephew of Metal… Nice to meet you.”

“I’m Emily… Girlfriend, but you probably figured that much already…” she blushed a bit, “Nice to meet you.”

Jack nodded, “Yeah, figured that much…”

Then he stepped back and scanned the room for a free seat. He found one next to his grandpa.

* * *

“So, Emily…” John cleared his voice, “What do you do for a living?”

Emily glanced over at Metal for a quick moment, “I’m a nurse.”

“Right, Full Metal said that…” John dipped his head. “Hospital, right?”

“Yeah.” She nodded.

“That’s cool!” Jack grinned.

“Hey, future medic… How about getting a… What’s it called? RN, BSN? Instead…” snapped his fingers at Jack. He knew his sister didn’t want to have another family member who was at constant risk of returning home in a body bag.

Emily chuckled.

“What’s it like anyway?” Jack asked.

“Well, that depends entirely on where you work…” Emily shrugged, “Nursing home is very different from the ER. ER is very different from a psych ward. Psych ward is very different from a surgical bed floor.”

“Virginia Beach is different from the middle east…” Metal shrugged.

“Also true.” Emily nodded.

“What?” Gina scrounged up her nose a little, “I don’t follow…”

“I’m a travel nurse. Kinda.” Emily shrugged, “The hospital I work in here, has a sister hospital, which I often work at. Kinda like deployments, but not the military.”

“So…” Jack looked from Emily to Metal and back a couple of times, “How long are you usually home for at the time?”

“I get to put in wishes. And for once I wished to stay home a bit longer than I usually do.” Emily looked over at Metal, he winked back, “But… I’ve got another one coming up soon-ish.”

“But, it’s only a few months, and we both have a lot of experience being away from friends and family…” Metal filled in, “If anyone can get through this, it should be us.”

Emily nodded, “Bet you never expected to be the one staying at home though…”

“True.” Metal chuckled.

“So, what area of nursing do you work in?” Jack followed up.

“Well, I started out in a surgical bed post, with mostly orthopedic patients. Moved onto the emergency/trauma room after a little while. I take extra shifts in… I work with a lot of different things, but my comfort zone is definitely injuries.”

“You can work in different areas?”

“You get training when you start a new place. If they only call for an RN, or an RN with a BSN, and you have those qualifications, you can work there. But of course, you’ve got to learn and be useful as well.”

Jack nodded. “Emergency room sounds interesting.”

Metal didn’t miss the hopeful look in his sister’s eyes, which again disappeared when her son spoke again.

“I’ll still be gunning for uncle Trent’s job, but… Be nice to have something to aim for when I fall into repair-age.”

“Kid, you’re not old enough to get to mention repair-age…” Rob chuckled.

Metal smirked.


	24. Dinner

“Uh-oh…” Metal smirked as his mom and sister started bringing the food out to the table.

“Dibs on the two-seater!” Jack raised a hand.

“I’ll take THAT recliner!” Rob pointed at one of the chairs.

“What?” Emily whispered to Metal.

“That dish, will knock you on your ass. Not as bad as the Thanksgiving turkey though, but… You’ll be in a food coma afterwards.” Metal chuckled, “Hey mom… My old room, bed’s still there… Right?”

“You really think you’re going to make it all the way to your room?” Rob chuckled, “That’s ambitious, even without your latest injury.”

Metal smirked, “Oh, I’ll sleep on the floor if it gets too tough…”

John smirked, “I’ll take this recliner…”

“No surprise there, dad…” Amy rolled her eyes.

“Come sit down…” Gina prompted.

* * *

The food was good they all just fell silent as they ate. Then conversation picked up when the first ones were done eating again.

There was a little casual conversation about what they had done the last couple of weeks. Highlights of what more distant family members had done lately. Rob and John discussed which of the local high school football teams would come out on top at the end of the season.

“I’m pretty sure our team has the best linebacker though…” Rob grinned and looked in Jack’s direction.

“Yeah, I think you’re right about that.” John agreed, “Little skinny still, but got heart to make up for that.”

“He’ll be just fine…” Metal winked, “Hell, the linebacker back in the early nineties wasn’t any bigger.”

“Thanks Metal.” Jack grinned, “See, gramps?”

“I’m pretty sure you were bigger…” John frowned.

“No, I wasn’t.” Metal shrugged, “Filled in a lot after basics… I was normal sized at best when I was in high school…”

“That can’t be right…” John tilted his head.

Metal shrugged, “It’s true. I know mom has a lot of photo albums to prove it to us all. That being said, I think I outgrew you when I was 14…”

“Alright, that might be the reason…” John chuckled. He wasn’t exactly short, but his son had a few inches on him, and had that since early high school.

Emily smirked a bit, she figured she liked listening to Metal speaking with his family.

“Hundred percent, hundred percent of the time…” Jack winked at his uncle, “That’s what it’s all about, right?”

Metal shrugged, “I’d say high school football is more about having fun… But it’s a nice ground rule…”

Rob nodded, “Sure is.”

The conversation rolled on, until the last person was done eating. The two youngest kids had already been excused and were playing in the corner of the room.

* * *

She hadn’t felt the ‘knockout’ effect of Gina’s food, before she stood up after the meal. Then she realized what the guys had been talking about, and tried her best to stifle a yawn. “I’m so sorry…”

Gina just laughed, “Don’t worry about it. I think my boys tried to warn you…”

Emily nodded, “It tasted great though…”

“Thank you.” Gina smiled back, before she watched her son get up from where he had been sitting. He yawned, still holding onto the chair and table for balance, before he reached for his crutches.

Metal looked down at Emily, “I was serious about my old bed still being there. Got enough room for both of us.”

“I could help out with the dishes…” Emily barely managed to finish the sentence before another yawn rolled off her.

“Go take a nap…” Gina chuckled, “I’ve got this…”

“Thanks…” Emily blushed a bit, before she looked up at Metal, “You were not kidding about that food…”

He shook his head, “I’m still amazed we wake up before New Year’s after the Thanksgiving turkey dinner…”

Emily chuckled, “Yeah, I bet.”

* * *

“So…” he started as they were about to drift off to their little post-dinner nap, “What do you think so far…”

“About your family?”

He nodded.

“Good people…” she took a deep inhale, “Much less scary than I expected…”

He chuckled, “Good. They like you as well. I can tell.”

“Yeah.” He nodded again.


	25. Future?

He woke up after about 30 minutes. Her long brunette spilled everywhere, and it smelled like that coconut shampoo she had. He loved that scent. He loved the rose scented shampoo she had as well.

He let his head rest so he could just lay there and breathe in her hair.

He figured he had to wake her soon enough, but for now he could just lay there and enjoy it all.

He let his mind wander. The future.

The perfect future had always been being a tier one operator until he was carried out feet first. Now he wasn’t so sure anymore.

He had lived in that same three-feet world as Jason lived in. He never really planned anything, except for missions. Never thought of what could be, or what he wanted the next week, next month or year.

But now? He just wanted to be there. He didn’t have the urge to gear up and be with his brothers on in some godforsaken place on the other side of the earth. He just wanted to be there, with her arm resting on his chest.

His mind even allowed itself to wonder if kids were in their future. Because as sure as she would allow it, it would be THEIR future. He didn’t care about his future, but THEIR that was an important future.

What would their kids look like? Would they be tall like him, or short like her? They probably would have either dark blond or brunette hair either way. Would they have his square-ish face shape, or her more heart shaped one? Would they have that adorable little point her hair went down in, or not?

He toyed around with the idea of five years into the future. Of course he would be good enough to work, maybe not as a SEAL team member, but he’d be working. Green team instructor, some sort of security detail for someone who thought they were more important than they really were, something.

Five years from now they would have two or three kids. Probably two, three was a lot in five years. He imagined the oldest one being a girl, a true copy of how Emily had looked when she was a kid, maybe a bit lighter hair. Maybe his blue-grey eyes.

The youngest could be a boy. More his face and body type, but her colors.

He didn’t know much about the future. Didn’t really know anything. But he knew he wanted to spend it together with her.

* * *

“Em… We should join the others…” he whispered, rubbing a thumb over her shoulder.

She stirred a bit.

“Emily…”

She blinked awake.

“We should join the others again… Soon.”

She yawned, “How long did we sleep?”

“You? About forty minutes. I woke up ten minutes ago…”

“And you didn’t wake me?”

“I just woke you up now…” he chuckled, “Trust me, Rob’s probably still flat out. Amy too. Dad might’ve started his quest for coffee… And mom… She’s just… I’m pretty sure she’s immune to her own cooking.”

Emily chuckled, “Yeah?”

Metal nodded, “So, what do you say? Get up and search for some coffee?”

Emily nodded near his shoulder.


	26. Another future?

The question made something knit itself inside of her. Usually she just joked it off, claimed that the last thing she wanted was kids. It was a way she had protected herself ever since her problems had started.

But that didn’t feel right now. Not when his sister asked the question. Not when the woman who would have been her kid’s aunt asked the question.

Amy tilted her head as she looked at her. “A little early to ask that question? Sorry.”

Emily swallowed, she wanted to wrap herself in Metal’s arms, but they were in the kitchen and the men were in the living room. And she was pretty sure Metal hadn’t exactly looked up endometriosis on his own. He was good with her, he knew that it caused her a lot of pain and he wanted to help her any way he could, which mostly ended with him being her personal cuddle-buddy.

“No… Uh…” Emily swallowed hard, fought to keep her voice as level as possible, “I’m not sure that’ll ever happen.”

“Oh, so you don’t want kids?”

She wanted kids, she had known that ever since she was one herself. It was perfectly fine for a woman to not want kids, but SHE wanted kids. She shook her head, “No, I want kids. Not sure it’ll ever happen though.”

Amy obviously didn’t follow straight away, before realization bloomed across her face, “Oh gosh, I’m sorry. That’s probably really insensitive, right?”

Emily couldn’t help but chuckle a bit, “It’s definitely not the worst.”

“Can I ask?”

“I probably have the same diagnosis as my mom and grandma. And they struggled to have kids.” Emily looked at her hands, “I have the symptoms, haven’t got a proper diagnosis yet. But hey, listening to Metal’s buddies, it doesn’t really sound like he’s the kind of guy who needs to be a dad.”

Amy chuckled a bit “Yeah, he’s kinda famous for that rough exterior…”.

“Seeing him with your kids though…” Emily shrugged, “He’d be the perfect dad…”

“He would.” Amy nodded, “But hey, lots of ways to be a family…”

Emily nodded, “Yeah. I know.”

“If you ever need someone to rant to… I’m probably not the best, and I definitely don’t have any experience with that sort of problem… But I’m here if you need me. Okay? I’m an above-middle listener…”

Emily offered up a smile, “Does that go for when your brother gets a bit too Navy as well?”

“-Of course…” Amy chuckled, “-Or when he’s just being stupid. Trust me, he can be really stupid sometimes.”

Emily chuckled, “Unbiased opinion, or siblings being siblings?”

Amy shrugged a bit, “Probably a good mix.”

Emily smiled. 


	27. Shower

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Had to make it a bit steamy... Sorry...  
> Couldn't help myself. 
> 
> Hope you enjoy...

They had gotten home pretty late. Late enough to just grab a shower and go to bed.

The shower was just big enough for both of them to fit in it, with the shower chair Metal still needed.

He kinda liked it, it made them about the same height. Easy access.

She stood between his knees, her fingers intertwined behind his neck.

* * * 

She loved the feeling of his rough hands against her soft skin. He had so many ways of telling her he loved her, she couldn’t remember him actually saying it with words, but he was good at letting her know in other ways. His strong and rough hands being careful enough for neurosurgery with her was one of those she loved the most. Gentle but firm.

She leaned in closer, or his left hand pulled her closer, until their lips met.

His right hand slid from her side and up her back, then he let his hand glide down her back, all the way down to the back of her thigh.

She could feel him smile while they kissed, she did as well.

He tilted his head, started kissing her jaw, down her neck. He pressed his lips along her collarbone. Kissed until his head was in the center of her chest.

He let his other arm drop to the same level as his right, then he pulled her as close as she could, then lifted her.

She yelped. “Hey, EASY THERE METAL!”

He flashed a grin, “What? You don’t think I’m strong enough to lift you?”

“I don’t want you to hurt yourself.” She pouted, “Set me back down…”

He shrugged a little, “I think there’s a toll on that…”

“Yeah?”

“A kiss.” He smirked.

Emily chuckled, but did pay the so-called toll.

Once her feet were back on the tile floor, she let one hand glide down his chest. It thrilled her that his breath hitched.

She felt one hand glide to the small of her waist, one to her left cheek.

Her breath was shaky, his was as well.

He looked up at her, his eyes colored by lust.

She let the hand she had pressed against his chest glide towards his side.

He swallowed hard, his eyes still glued to hers. 

She let her other hand travel up to glide through his wet hair.

“Should we…” he jerked his head in the direction of his bedroom.

She flashed a smile, nodded.

He grinned.


	28. I can’t believe we haven’t done that before

Concerned eyes were trained on her the very second she inhaled a little sharper than expected.

“That didn’t sound good…”

She shrugged a little as she forced herself to relax, “-Just that _issue_ I’ve told you about…”

“That endo-stuff?” he asked as he let one hand glide over the front of her thigh.

She nodded.

“That causes pain with this stuff as well?” his eyes were just as concerned, if not more.

She shrugged, “Sometimes. Don’t think about it.”

“No-no-no-no.” his eyebrows knitted closer together, “I want you to be comfortable. We don’t have to do this if it’s hurting you…”

She chuckled a bit, “I already told you, don’t worry about it… And it’s not like we could be a couple without doing this at least once in a while.”

He opened and closed his mouth a couple of times, not really knowing what to say.

“Don’t worry about it…” she winked.

“Any way we can make this less painful for you?”

She shrugged a little, “Never been a perfect answer to that question. Some days nothing hurts, some days everything does.”

“I don’t want to hurt you…”

She took a deep breath, “Will you just relax, alright?”

A small smirk tugged at his lips at her frustration, “Probably not the thing you want to hear right now, but you’re kinda hot when you’re annoyed.”

She chuckled.

“Now, any way I can ensure this will be as comfortable as possible for you?”

“Well, you can’t exactly grow smaller…” Emily rolled her eyes, causing Metal to flash a cocky smile, “But one trick is to take it slow. Gentle.”

Metal nodded and let his other hand travel from her thigh and up her side, “Alright. Your pace.”

She nodded and moved her hips gently, “You sure you’re comfortable as well?”

He chuckled and squeezed her left thigh gently, “Can’t remember being more comfortable.”

* * *

“I can’t believe we haven’t done that before…” Metal chuckled after Emily had laid down next to him again.

She chuckled as well, “Well, you haven’t really been up for that much physical activity the last few months…”

He nodded a little, “True.”

She pressed a kiss against his chest, he answered it with a kiss on top of her head.

“You good?” he whispered, looking down at her.

She nodded against his chest, “Perfect… How’s your leg?”

He pulled his leg towards him a little before he lifted it in order to study the boot he had put back on after the shower, “Forgot about it for a few minutes there… How was your… The pain thing?”

“Not bad…” she pulled herself a bit closer to him.

He furrowed his brow and looked over at her with concern.

“I would tell you if it hurt too much.” She sighed and drew a pattern on his chest with her fingers, “When I don’t, the pleasure overrides the pain.”

“I still don’t like the thought of you being in pain…”

“Nothing you can do about it.” She shrugged, “Better just accept it and make the best out of it.”

He nodded a little.


	29. Shipping out

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...So, some weeks later...

“So… You’re shipping out tomorrow…” he sighed and pressed his lips against the top of her head. They were on the couch with some tv-show neither of them watched playing in the background.

She nodded against his chest.

“For how long?”

“Five months this time…” she swallowed.

He nodded a little, “Well, at least five months ain’t _that_ long…”

She nodded against his chest once more, “Still pretty long…”

He nodded, “Yeah… I know…”

“I’m looking forward to coming back home already…” she almost whispered.

“Yeah, me too…” he agreed, rubbing a hand over her shoulder.


	30. Video call

It was a couple of months later. And the time for their weekly video call rolled around.

He had his elbows leaned against his kitchen table, and his laptop set up in front of him.

He felt a smirk creep onto his lips, he had leaned his crutches up against the wall, right inside the camera’s reach.

She connected.

“Hey there…” she yawned, “Sorry, I overslept…”

“Nightshift last night?” Metal smiled, “Shouldn’t it be around 5pm there?”

She nodded, “Was one of those shifts where it’s just impossible to get away…”

“I didn’t know how much I missed that sleepy face of yours in the mornings…” he chuckled, “How are things there?”

“Last 48 hours has been hectic…” she shrugged, “Had a quiet stretch before that…”

He nodded.

“And how are you?”

“Good.” He nodded, “Got something to show you…”

“Yeah?”

He nodded and got up, “Actually, I could’ve shown you this the last couple of weeks, but I wanted to make sure first…”

“Make sure what?”

He reached for his crutches and hobbled away from the camera, until his whole body was visible on her screen. Then he flashed a proud smirk and placed the crutches against the wall once more. “This.”

He took a few steps. They were still tentative and cautious, but he didn’t need the crutches.

“Metal! I can barely believe it!”

“Wait, there’s more…” he held up a hand to stall her, before he bent down and hiked up the leg of his pants.

“No boot?”

“No boot!” he beamed as he stood back up again, “Was good enough to toss the crutches a few weeks back, got the clear signal to kick the boot ten days ago.”

“Wow, that’s great!”

“Been working on not looking like a newborn four-legged animal ever since…”

“Considering how long you’ve been off that leg, I’m impressed by how steady you are…”

“Let’s just say there’s been a lot of improvement over the last ten days…” Metal smirked, “Don’t you have a raincheck for a dance laying around? Maybe I finally can swing you around the dancefloor when you get back home… Not promising I’ll as good as I once was though…”

Emily smiled, “Looking forward to it… Just make sure your leg is ready for it, no need to do too much too soon…”

“No, relax… I won’t…” Metal shrugged, and sat back down on the kitchen chair. “So, How are you? You said it had been a hectic couple of days…?”

Emily nodded, “Yeah, there’s been a lot of activity in the area the last few days. I don’t think it’s enough to make international news, but it definitely enough to make us busy…”

Metal nodded, “-But you’re staying safe?”

“As safe as anyone is here nowadays.” She nodded, “Nothing compared to what you and your guys come up against on a regular basis.”

“You’re attempting to ease my mind?” Metal’s brows knit together, “That’s really not the best way to do it…”

She chuckled a bit, “I said it was NOTHING compared to what you guys go up against…”

Metal rubbed a hand over his stubbles, “Gonna be good to have you back home, alright?”

She nodded, “I’m looking forward to it as well…”

* * *

Emily barely noticed that the hours passed as they talked.

Each time they talked, she missed him more than what she did when she was working. Yet, she didn’t want to be without their weekly talks.

She could barely wait to be back with him on US soil. Spending her evenings by his side, sleeping next to him in bed.

“We should hang up soon…” she sighed, “I’ve got to get ready for another night shift soon, and you probably have stuff to do as well…”

He nodded a little, “Yeah, Trent’s coming over soon… Gonna work out together.”

“Sounds fun…”

Metal chuckled, “For Trent, yeah…”

She tilted her head.

“We’re doing leg day…” Metal chuckled, “My workout program looks like ten minutes of walking on the treadmill, or as close to that as I can get… And then those leg exercise machines, with less weight than most of the grandmas at the gym puts on… Before I cool down with the same treadmill routine as I start the exercise with. It’s pathetic…”

Emily chuckled, “I wouldn’t call it pathetic, at least not since I know what that left leg of yours has been through…”

Metal nodded a bit, “Guess you’ve got a point…”

“I do.” She nodded, “So, when are we gonna talk again?”

“My schedule is pretty much empty, so let’s find a time which fits with your work…” Metal shrugged.

Emily nodded, “How about Tuesday, same time as we started today… I’m on dayshift… Should be off by then…”

“Sounds good.” He smiled, “See you then…”

“Can barely wait…” she winked.

He nodded, “Alright, I love you. Talk to you later…”

“Love you too…”


	31. Aches and pains and all

“You look like you got dragged after a vehicle for half a mile…” Full Metal chuckled a bit as Sonny and Trent entered the Bulkhead, “After completing hell week…”

Trent nodded as he limped over to the table Metal already sat by, grimacing as he lowered himself to one of the chairs.

“Tell ya what… Feels exactly like it too…” Sonny frowned as he walked stiffly after Trent, “Think I actually missed hell week there for a moment.”

“You’re kidding, right?” Metal looked from Sonny to Trent and back again.

“Barely…” Trent frowned, “My right knee feels 30 years older. I’d rather endure surf torture for three hours than five more minutes of that spin up…”

Sonny nodded, “I’d prefer the long runs and getting sandy than that spin up…”

“So… I should just be glad I wasn’t there?” Metal scrunched up his nose.

“You my freaky bastard, you might have enjoyed it…” Sonny frowned, “Maybe not right now with that leg still healing, but…”

Metal smirked, “Yeah, still working on getting back to normal. THEN I’m gonna work on getting back on the team.”

Trent smiled, “Looking forward to it brother…”

Metal lifted his whiskey glass before nodding, “Me too, bro…”

They sat in silence for a moment, Metal took a sip of his whiskey, Trent massaged his lower thigh. Sonny toyed with a strap on the sling which held his left arm.

“So, how’s the rest of the team?”

“Generally banged up…” Trent shrugged, “Jay’s okay, just exhausted. Ray got tagged in the vest, so I imagine every movement hurts. Brock managed to break something in his hand… Clay tried to fly, took a rough landing, crutches for a couple of weeks.”

Metal nodded for a while, then looked over at Trent, “You look like you should be on crutches as well…”

“Just pulled something…” Trent sighed, “It’s fine…”

“Ready for leg day tomorrow then?”

“No. You’d probably kick my ass.” Trent frowned, “I could probably go for something upper-body, but I won’t do legs…”

Metal smirked a bit.

“So, how are you doing?” Sonny shot in, “Emily’s coming home soon, right?”

Metal flashed a smile, “Yeah, in three more days.”

“Looking forward to it?” Trent tilted his head.

Metal nodded, “Yeah. I’m trying to figure out what we’re going to do though… I want to take her out on a proper date now that I’m a bit more mobile. I have no idea what kind of date.”

“She seems like a gal who would like just about anything you pulled her along for…” Sonny drawled, “Just don’t take her to the shootin’ range for a date, alright?”

Metal chuckled a bit, “You do know that I have the ability to be a bit more romantic than that?”

“Really?” Sonny tilted his head, “You mean to say that there’s something soft and cuddly under that scary, freakish soldier thing you’ve got going on? Nope, not buying it!”

Metal chuckled. “Pretty sure Em would agree with me…”

“Adorable little woman, but there’s gotta be something wrong with her…” Sonny smirked, “I mean, the only clue is that she fell for you, but something’s gotta be off…”

Trent chuckled a little as well, “-Or maybe she’s just tougher than you Sonny…”

“She is…” Metal smirked, “She’s not afraid of the water, or sharks, -or me…”

Trent smirked, “Hey, Sonny… I’m getting a beer, you want one?”

“Yeah! That’d be awesome…”

“And you?” Trent looked over at Metal.

“Nah, I already got this.” He answered and held up his whiskey, “Besides, I think I have less problems walking to the bar and back than you right now…”

“Not entirely sure about that, but okay…” Trent chuckled, “But you’re getting better, I’ll give you that.”

* * *

“So… You really think you can make it back?” Sonny asked while Trent was over by the bar.

Metal swallowed a bit, “Still early…”

Sonny nodded.

“-But I’ve got my hopes up.” Metal crossed his arms over his chest, “I’m getting strength back. I’m getting the range of motion back, slowly.”

Sonny glanced down, “Yeah, looks like you’re almost at 90 degrees there…”

Metal smirked, and helped his left foot a bit further back with his right foot. “Actually, I get 110 degrees now. But, a little less than 90 is still a bit more comfortable…”

“Wow, that’s great…” Sonny nodded.

“And those last degrees are hard to pull towards when I’ve been sitting for a spell…” Metal admitted, “But, still progress…”

Sonny nodded, “And you walk…”

“Been doing so for a while…”

“I know…” Sonny almost rolled his eyes, “I meant, you’re comfortable walking?”

“More or less.” Metal nodded, “I limp a lot if I’ve been sitting still for a while. But walking in general ain’t that bad.”

Sonny nodded, “That’s good.”

Metal nodded, “Might be cleared for light jogging next week.”

“That’s even better!”

“Sure is.” Metal took another small sip of his whiskey, “I actually miss running.”

Sonny chuckled a bit, “That’s something I’d never thought I would hear coming from any of my teammates…”

Metal nodded, “Well, I’m sick and tired of the disabled list. Running would get me one step closer to the field, back with my brothers.”

“Back where you really belong…” Sonny nodded.

“Yeah.” Metal nodded slowly.

* * *

Trent came back a few minutes later with a couple of beers. He placed one in front of Sonny, and the other one in front of his empty chair. Then he lowered himself, not able to mask the slight grimace pulling on his features.

“No offence, but you look like an 80-year-old trying to sit down…”

Trent chuckled, “Funny, coming from you.”

“Yeah, well…” Metal nodded, “Gotta be allowed to be a bit affected by having a freaking wall land on you… Still can’t believe I’ve gotten this far already.”

Trent nodded, “Yeah, you’ve really had some progression lately.”

“Felt like I was stuck for a long while, but it helped after that graft.” Metal hitched up one shoulder, “Actually, just getting some of that frame removed also helped a lot.”

Sonny nodded, “Yeah, you really were a sorry sight in the start.”

“Sorry sight?” Metal chuckled, “That’s putting it lightly, I was sorry everything. I could literally do nothing on my own, and you should have seen the first time they tried to get me vertical.”

“Yeah?” Trent tilted his head.

“Two nurses and one physical therapist decided it was about time for me to test the floor. One nurse helped me sit up, while the other one helped me get my leg off the bed, without too much hassle.” Metal closed his eyes and blushed slightly, “The spawn of evil was holding the tall walker thing…”

“Spawn of evil?” Sonny chuckled,

“Physical therapist.” Metal clarified, “I’m 99 percent sure being a sadist is some sort of requirement for them.”

Trent nodded, “At least the ones you meet after a proper injury.”

Metal nodded, “Anyway, the spawn of evil was holding the walker thing and telling me what their plan was. I was telling them that I thought it probably was a bit early, cause I was in A LOT of pain…”

The two others nodded along.

“The nurse who has my leg gets it down on the floor. I get a minute or so to get my bearings. Then with physical assistance they want to have me up and hobble over to that recliner chair in my room at the rehabilitation facility. “

“I’ve got a sneaking suspicion that didn’t go as planned…” Sonny raised his eyebrows.

“It didn’t.” Metal nodded, “I might have gotten five inches off the bed, with the assistance of those three mentioned… -Before I passed the fuck out.”

Trent smirked.

“Woke up back in my bed, with legs elevated and head down.” Full Metal shrugged, “And they waited a couple of days before they tried it again.”

Sonny took a sip of his beer, then he looked over at the corner where all the photos hung, “You know what?”

“No…” Metal shook his head.

“We’re some damn lucky bastards. Having done the things we’ve done, and still on the topside of the soil.”

“I’ll drink to that…” Trent nodded, raising his glass.

Metal nodded and raised his glass as well, “Aches and pains and all… Still worth it.”

“I’d do it again, a million times over.” Trent sighed, his left hand landing over his scar once he had put the glass back down. He probably didn’t notice the gesture himself.

“Definitely.” Full Metal smiled.

Sonny nodded a little, “As long as I would have my brothers right there with me, I could probably go for that as well.”


	32. Back home

Butterflies were doing somersaults inside of her as she stepped into the corridor leading from the plane and out to the main block of the airport building.

She had turned her phone on as soon as it was allowed, and a text had laid there waiting for her. From Full Metal. Telling her that he was waiting outside in the arrival area.

She couldn’t wait to be with him again. Could barely wait to sleep next to him again, feel his rough hands against her skin, press her face against his chest and breathe in his smell. She had missed all those little things.

She missed all of him.

* * * 

“Damn, it’s good to see that pretty face of yours again.” He grinned as she walked through the sliding doors, “Not on a screen, I mean.”

She smiled back as she stepped closer and wrapped her arms around his waist. She knew there wouldn’t be an airport kiss, Metal wasn’t like that. But, being spoiled with kisses was in her near future anyway, just as soon as they were in a more private location. “Good to see you too, soldier.”

He leaned down and pressed his lips against the top of her head, about as close to a public kiss he’d allow himself in the daylight, “How was your flight?”

“Long…” she sighed, “Long and boring…”

He chuckled a bit, he had experience with public planes as well. He definitely preferred the military ones, even though the pilots had a tendency to climb to altitude a little faster, or descend faster upon landing. No one gave a military flight bad reviews which could affect an airline negatively. As long as the plane made it back on ground in a condition where it could be used again, everyone was happy.

At least in the military flights you could walk around and stretch your legs. Play poker and what not.

“So, are you tired?”

“No, but I need a shower…” she shrugged, “I feel like I reek flight-sweat.”

“Trust me, you don’t…” he smirked, “But I recognize the feeling…”

She nodded.

“Do you have anything on that list of things you need to get done once you make it back home after being away for long?”

“Quality time…” she shrugged, “With you. And visit mom and dad tomorrow or something…”

“Alright…” Metal nodded, “Wanna go home?”

She nodded against his chest.


	33. Future

She had been home for a few weeks, and was back to working at the hospital once again. This time around, she hadn’t even bothered going back to her own apartment. She had what she needed at Metal’s place, and she preferred sharing space with him instead of the student she was renting half of her place out to.

* * *

They were out walking when the question came. She had not been prepared.

“What?”

Metal shrugged a little and adjusted his cap, “Just wanted to know your thoughts.”

She kept her eyes on him until he repeated himself.

“About kids… Do you want kids, not necessarily right now… But, in the future?”

She swallowed hard, “What do you want?”

“I asked you…” he smirked, “I want to hear your standpoint first.”

She shrugged, “Well… Yes…”

The smile which lit up his face told her what she needed to know, but it also hurt deep down inside of her. She didn’t know what to say, she knew she had to say something, she just didn’t know how to start.

He must’ve seen something in her expression, because he tilted his head and his expression softened, “What’s wrong?”

“Not sure I can though…” she sighed, looking down at her shoes.

The hand on her shoulder was so careful and so warm she had to look back up even though her eyes were stinging.

“Hey, sorry I brought it up…”

“No. No-no…” she shook her head, “Don’t worry about that.”

He shrugged a little, “It’s clearly something which is tough for you.”

“Kinda used to the thought…” she admitted with a shrug, “Just took me by surprise, that’s all.”

He nodded a little, “Is it that… Endometriosis thing?”

She nodded, “Not being able to get pregnant is one of the symptoms. But then again, there are those who have zero problem getting pregnant… So… I might be lucky. And who knows? I might not even have endo… Might be all in my head, right?”

One side of his mouth curved upward in an apologetic half-smile, “I’m pretty sure you have something… -And not something just in your head either…”

Before she knew it, she was pulled closer to his chest. His arms around her shoulders.

“If you want to, we can wait postpone this conversation until we’re back home…”

She shook her head against his chest, “Pretty sure we’re anonymous enough along these streets.”

She felt him chuckle a bit, “Okay, if you say so…”

She nodded and they eventually broke apart.

“So… You want kids…” she tilted her head and looked up at him.

He shrugged a bit, as they started walking in the direction they had been heading earlier, “Sure, but it’s not a necessity.”

She chuckled a bit, the smile a few moments ago had told her that it definitely was on his top-five list of things he wished to happen. She knew he tried to protect her.

“How about we try?” she shrugged, “We try for a while, if I don’t get knocked up. We try something else.”

“Like what?”

“IVF first?” she shrugged, “If that’s unsuccessful, what’s your stance on adoption or fostering?”

“Good alternatives.” He winked at her, “But, all those things are bridges we’ll have to cross if we get to them.”

She nodded a little, “Yeah. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves, right?”

He nodded. “And marriage?”

“WHAT?”

“Not asking you to marry me right now…” He chuckled, “Relax. Just want to know if that’s something you’d… Consider.”

She chuckled, “Of course.”

“Good.” He bumped his arm into her shoulder, “Because I plan on getting down on one knee. -I just want to get a little bit better physically before I do…”

She bumped her shoulder back into his arm, “You don’t have to worry about the answer. I already know what I’ll say?”

“Yeah?”

“I do…” she looked up at him and winked.

“Great.”


	34. Guess I’ll just have to grit my teeth and buckle up…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, I went back and tried to figure out how much time had passed so far in the story. Turns out, it’s a minimum of 13 months and 3 weeks by now. Which oddly works really well with the healing timeline I had sorta imagined when I started this. Yay.

“You look happy…” Emily smiled as she returned from work that day.

He nodded, a big grin plastered across his face.

“Care to let me in on the reason?” she asked as she placed her work-bag next to the shoe shelf.

“Yup.” He nodded, “Wanna go for a jog?”

“You’re cleared for jogging now?”

He nodded, “They told me to start out slow, not go as fast as I think I can… But yeah, I’m allowed to jog.”

“That’s great!”

“-So, do you wanna go for a jog with me, or are you tired after work?”

Emily chuckled a bit, “Do I look like someone who enjoys jogging? At all?”

Metal shrugged.

“-You’d outrun me…”

“Oh, you haven’t seen slow yet…” Metal chuckled, “You do realize I haven’t been above walking speed since I got injured? That’s more than a year now.”

“Really?” Emily frowned, “Has it been that long already?”

He nodded, “I don’t even want to mention the embarrassing number on the treadmill earlier today, but you’ll definitely keep up with me.”

Emily smirked a bit, “You mean I for once in my life could have the chance to outrun a Tier-One SEAL operator?”

Metal chuckled a bit, “A still-healing Tier-One SEAL operator… Sure.”

“Alright, let me just put on a sports-bra and some more suitable clothes.” She shook her head a little, “I can’t believe you’re actually tricking me into working out…”

Full Metal smirked a little.

“Just, remember; I have short legs…”

That broke Metal, and he started laughing. “I won’t outrun you… Chances are, you’re going to be walking beside me most of the time, nurse-tempo walking, but still walking…”

“You’re that slow?”

Metal shrugged, then nodded, “Probably.”

“That’s something I’ll believe when I see it.”

“So… You’re ready?”

Emily nodded.

“Alright, I better change into some workout clothes as well then…” Metal shrugged.

* * *

She realized pretty quickly that he hadn’t been joking with her. Not about being slow, not about that she would probably be able to do her fast-paced nurse-walking beside him.

“How are you doing?” she asked once they reached what they had decided would be the midway point of their so-called jog, “Should we take a short break?”

“I’m…” he stopped a little and leaned over with his hands on his knees, “My left leg feels like it’s in acid-hell.”

She frowned, “That doesn’t sound pleasant.”

He shook his head a little before he stood back to his full height and shook out his legs in hope that it would relieve some of the lactic acid burning in his left leg.

“So, should we sit down, take a break?”

“Yeah, a short one…” Metal nodded and started half-limping over to a nearby bench, “It’s annoying that you’re not even breaking a sweat, while I’m struggling this much.”

“Well, you’re not sweating either.” Emily shrugged, “Muscle fatigue, that’s another thing…”

Metal chuckled, “Guess it is…”

They sat down, and Metal kicked his legs out in front of himself. Emily edged close to Metal’s right side.

“One step closer, right?” Emily whispered as she watched Full Metal rub hard along the length of his thigh, over the compression sleeve covering his leg.

“Huh?”

“One step closer to being back in the field…” she shrugged, leaning closer.

“You really think I can make it?”

“I know that if there’s even the slightest sliver of a chance, you’re sure as hell stubborn enough to make it.” She let her head rest against his shoulder, “If it’s still what you want to do with your life…”

He shrugged, “Honestly… I’m not sure…”

“Well, I’m pretty sure you still want that.” Emily craned her neck to look up at him, “I can see it in you, you’re not done yet.”

“Yeah?” he chuckled, “I feel pretty done…”

“You just got cleared for jogging…” She let her head fall back against his shoulder, “You can’t expect to run a sub-6 minute mile straight away… Or run a marathon… -Yet.”

“Guess I’ll just have to grit my teeth and buckle up…”

Emily nodded, “Think that’s the only way forward from now on.”

He took a deep breath. “Where there’s a will, there’s a way… Right?”

She chuckled a little, “Something like that, yeah…”

He smirked, “You ready for the jog back home?”

“I am…” she winked, “You ready?”

“Only way forward, right?” he shrugged as he got back up to his feet.


	35. a few months later

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright gonna play a little fast-and-loose with the fast-forward here. I know I basically just skipped ahead a few months with Emily being overseas, but I’m gonna skip ahead some more…

She had barely made it out of bed and into the living room that morning before the door to the hallway opened and Metal stepped back inside.

He almost jogged over to the fridge and pulled the remainder of a gallon of whole milk, judged how much there was left before he figured it was little enough to just drink directly from the jug.

“It’s about that time again?” he looked over his shoulder at Emily as he unscrewed the cap of the jug. His expression soft and caring.

“Yeah, how’d you know?”

“Oat milk….” he shrugged, “You only buy that when regular milk upsets you. And it wasn’t in the fridge yesterday.”

She took a deep breath and sighed, “Well, one thing’s for sure… You’re observant.”

He shrugged as he took a good sip from the near-empty jug.

“So, how was your run?”

“Great.” He offered up a grin.

“Did you run alone? Or?”

“No, ran with Ray and Trent.” Metal smiled, “Didn’t fall as far behind this time. -Most of the time.”

“That’s good.” She smiled.

“They did have to slow it down for me a couple of times…” he frowned, “But, getting better. And my PT is impressed by the progress these last few months.”

“We all are…” she winked and stepped close, “You wanna know what’s really unfair?”

“What?”

“How hot you are when you’re literally dripping with sweat.”

He flashed another smile, placed the jug of milk on the counter and stepped over to where she stood and trapped her in a hug.

“…Doesn’t mean I wanna be pressed up against your sweaty workout clothes…” she chuckled as she tried to press away from him, “Good thing I already planned on having a shower this morning…”

He chuckled a little and swayed a little from side to side, humming a melody she couldn’t quite recall from anywhere.

She felt herself melt into his chest, even though he was soaked with sweat.

“Wanna hit the shower with me?” he asked looking down at her.

She nodded.


	36. Pre-deployment BBQ

“Oh, these…” Metal held up a steak by the grill fork Sonny had placed by the bbq-food, “You’ve definitely gotta try one of these…”

“Yeah?”

He nodded, “Yeah, Sonny might not look like much, but give the man a set of spices and whatever else goes into that marinade, fire and a grill fork, and the man can work magic…”

Emily laughed a little at Metal’s honest expression, “What else is a must-have?”

“I know you love vegetables, so…” Metal dragged his answer out as he placed the meat on his plate and freed the fork in order to point it towards another section of the long table with all sorts of food, “Lisa makes a pretty mean broccoli-salad. And the Perry’s have this buttermilk potato salad, also great.”

“The Perry’s?” Emily tilted her head, “Never heard you refer to Naima or Ray like that before…”

“That’s because I have no idea which one of them makes it…” he shrugged quickly.

She grinned, “Anything I should stay clear of?”

“If Brock brought anything other than coffee or booze, stay clear of that.”

“Is there a story behind that?”

“Nope.” Metal shook his head, “That guy simply can’t work his way around a kitchen… Stuff he makes are either boiled to death, almost raw when it shouldn’t be, or just seasoned so wrong it hurts.”

“And not a wife or girlfriend to help him?”

“If he’s got one, he’s kept her secret enough for a bunch of SEALs to not notice…” Metal shrugged, “Oh, and if anything is marked chickpea mac and cheese, stay clear of that as well. Never eaten that without being bloated as hell afterwards.”

“Copy that…” Emily chuckled, “If something makes you bloated, I don’t want to think of what it would do to my digestive system…”

Metal nodded.

* * *

Emily watched Metal goof off with his teammates. She knew he missed the lifestyle, she had seen that every day since she really got to know him.

She almost couldn’t believe how much hard work he put into what was going to be his big comeback.

“How’s he doing?”

Emily glanced over at Naima sitting a few feet away, “Huh?”

“Full Metal…” Naima shrugged, “How is he doing?”

Emily shrugged a little, “Good, mostly. Anything specific?”

Naima shrugged a little in return, “How’s he dealing with the rest of the team shipping out?”

“They’ve already been on a deployment or two without him…” Emily shrugged.

“Yeah…” Naima took a deep breath, “But then it was no question if he could have been with them. Now he’s almost there…”

Emily nodded a little, “Yeah. Almost. But he knows he’s not physically ready yet. I don’t even think he’s signed up for the physical ability tests yet.”

“I think you’re right about that.” Naima smiled, “Trust me, Ray would’ve told me about those kinds of news.”

“I believe you.” Emily smiled.

“-Well, at least he’s got you here at home to keep him company.”

Emily frowned, “For a few more weeks, at least.”

“Okay?”

“I’m going to work overseas for a little while. Just three months this time around.” Emily shrugged, “Unless the world goes to hell and they really, really, really need me there for longer…”

Naima nodded a little, “And he knows?”

“He knows.” Emily took a deep breath,

“-But?”

“Nothing…” Emily offered up a short smile, “I always LOVED working overseas. Because slow was rare, and I got to be outside of my comfort zone more than I was in it.”

Naima chuckled and dipped her head in the direction of the guys, “What are you? The nurse equivalent of one of those guys?”

“I’m an adrenaline junkie. Don’t tell anyone…” Emily chuckled, “Either that or I just like chaos.”

Naima let her head tilt sideways, her eyes back on the guys on the other side of the lawn. “You know, most of those guys… They have some baggage which put them on the track they’re on.”

Emily nodded a little.

“In that group, I imagine there’s got to be everything from witnessing bad accidents as a kid, to abusive parents, to neglect… Maybe not all of them, I don’t know each and every team-guy’s story… But a good part of them have something which has molded them into the guys they are.”

Emily didn’t say anything.

“All I’m saying… If you’ve got something.” Naima shrugged, “I’ve got wine and I’m a good listener.”

Emily chuckled, “Short version: My family went through a couple of tough times when I was young. Just figured it was easier to embrace the fact that I couldn’t control anything. Well, not tough-tough… Lower middle class tough, or maybe even upper lower class at one point or two. But my parents always made it work.”

Naima nodded a little.

“I know that when the pressure is on, I get calmer.” Emily shrugged, “I’m not sure it makes much sense, but that’s how I feel.”

“Might not fit me, but I’m pretty sure it rings true for some other people as well.”

Emily nodded a little, “Nowadays, I’m not as thrilled about leaving home… The last half of the last time was almost unbearable.”

“You missed him?”

“Yeah.” Emily nodded, “And it felt weird to be over there when I knew he just wanted to heal up and be out in the field with his guys.”

“Makes sense.”

“I might be closing in on my last trip over there…” Emily shrugged, “Not sure if it’s gonna be this one or the next, or one of the following… But… I don’t want to be doing those trips forever.”

Naima nodded a little.

* * *

“Was hoping you’d be shipping out with us, Scotty.” Jason sighed as he sat down next to Full Metal.

“Not ready yet.” Metal shrugged, “Not fast enough. And I need more endurance before I’m ready for the 20-clicks with a 100-lbs rucksack and gear combo we often end up with. Don’t want to slow you guys down.”

Jason smirked a little, “Next deployment?”

Metal shrugged a little, “That’s way outside of this little three-foot world we like to play around in, Jase…”

Jason chuckled, “Yeah, guess it is.”

“-But I’m trying to make it happen.” Metal unscrewed the cap of his empty water bottle, spit into it and put the cap back on, “Promise you that.”

“You know dip is bad for you…” Jason chuckled and bumped his elbow into Metal’s shoulder.

Metal grinned at the age-old tease Jason had been doing every now and then for the past twenty years, “Yeah, but you know… Me not having my dip is bad for EVERYONE ELSE…”

Jason laughed a bit, “Yeah, remember that time you actually tried to quit it? I’m pretty sure Sonny still has PTSD from that.”

“Maybe that’s why he claims I’m scary…” Metal laughed as well, “But really, who the hell wakes a guy up at 3 a.m. when he’s on day four of no tobacco, and doesn’t even bring coffee as peace offering.”

“That was a tactical error on his part.” Jason nodded, “But poor guy was just out of Green team.”

“He had known me for a couple of months…” Metal shook his head, still laughing, “He should’ve known better.”

“Remember Adam deciding it was in everyone’s best interest that your little ‘Of course I can quit’ bet with Swanny was put to rest?”

“I remember getting a lot of dip cans.” Metal smirked.

Jason chuckled, “Yeah, no one wanted to be around what felt like a temperamental cluster mine anymore…”

“I’m not that bad…”

“You have not shared sleeping quarters with yourself when someone takes away your dip…” Jason frowned, “You don’t get to judge how bad you are.”

“Alright, fair.”

“So, what does Emily think about it?”

“The dip?” Metal tilted his head questioningly, “I had to promise to never kiss her with a dip in… Other than that, she doesn’t care.”

“Oh, poor girl…” Jason shuddered, “Surprise dip sounds like the stuff nightmares are made of…”

“She did jam the nail of her thumb between two of my ribs.” Metal’s eyebrows drew closer together.

Jason chuckled, “She had every right.”

“She probably did…” Metal chuckled.


	37. Datenight

It was a few days before she was supposed to fly out. They had been out on a date, dinner at their favorite place and a movie they both wanted to see at the cinema. Then they had walked to the beach, and strolled along it for a good while, before they finally walked back to his apartment.

On their way back, they might or might not have shot in innuendos of what they planned on doing to each other once they had crossed the doorsill at home.

Emily liked that Metal no longer was as nervous as he had been about potentially causing her pain. It had happened a few times that she had ended up in some pain afterward, but she had finally convinced him that it usually was worth it, and for the most part it only lasted a little while.

* * *

The first item of clothing started coming off as soon as the door was on the way back to the frame. Metal’s sweater made its way up his torso and over one shoulder as he kicked off his shoes.

Emily kicked off her own shoes, slipped a couple of fingers inside the waistband of his jeans and pulled him closer to her. Then she stood up on her toes and winked, before she whispered, “Race you to the bedroom.”

She had barely said it before she darted towards their bedroom.

Metal was not prepared, and stood dumbfounded in the spot while Emily clearly won the race.

Once his brain caught up to everything else, he laughed and walked after her, removing the rest of his sweater. “You got me there.”

“I sure did.” Emily chuckled as she tried to get the zipper of her dress, “I might not be able to keep up with you on your runs anymore, but I can still win some races against you.”

“I’d like to claim my brain was taking a vacation…” he chuckled.

Emily finally gave up and turned her back against Metal, “Unzip me?”

“My pleasure…” Metal grinned and stepped closer, he bent down and placed a kiss along her shoulder as his fingers found the zipper.

She let go of a content sigh.

* * *

The pain was there as soon as she had climaxed. It felt like someone was actively twisting a double edged blade low down on the right side of her tummy.

She rolled off him, and curled up in the fetal position.

* * *

He spent a second or two to get his bearings, then he propped up on one elbow and placed a hand on her shoulder.

“Em, are you okay?”

He knew she wasn’t. He could see it in her posture, in how tense she was, in the tears which had started to roll from her eyes.

“What do you need?” he let his hand travel up and down the length of her upper arm.

She just shook her head as she tried to keep quiet.

“How bad is it?” his voice had definitely entered the worried specter.

She just shook her head once more.

“Em, you’re scaring me…” he swallowed hard, “-Do you need to go to the hospital?”

She shook her head once more.

“No?” he frowned, “Em, you look like you’re in a lot of pain… Are you sure?”

She shook he head.

“Okay?” he sighed, “You want to give it a little time?”

She nodded.

He frowned as he kept rubbing her arm, “Alright, five minutes. If it’s not better by then, we’re going to the hospital. Whether you like it or not.”

She shook her head a little, “I won’t need it.”

“Can you describe the pain to me?”

She shrugged and almost gasped as the pain almost seemed to get worse, “Sharp. Sharp cramps.”

“Like stabbing?”

She nodded a little.

“And where?”

“Here…” Emily tried to untwist from her position, but a grimace seized her face. She managed to give him an indication of where the pain sat even if she curled back into her previous position as soon as the she could.

“Right side?”

She nodded.

“Emily, this is important. Do you still have your appendix?”

She shook her head.

“Are you sure?”

“Had it removed when I was six.” She grit out.

“Really?”

She nodded and tried to suppress a cry.

“I’m gonna get dressed, and find something loose-fitting for you to put on.” He informed her, “Are you sure I shouldn’t call an ambulance?”

“It’ll pass.”

“Emily, this isn’t normal…” he swallowed, “Some doctor needs to check you out.”

“It’ll pass.” She bit out, “Just gonna take a little while.”

“If it’s not better before I’ve found clothes for us, you’re going to the hospital. End of discussion, okay?”

She didn’t answer.

“Okay?”

She nodded a little, “Okay.”

* * *

He put a pair of boxer briefs on and grabbed one of her hot-water bottles in order to fill it up, hoping that it could bring her some relief.

He returned and placed the hot bottle against her, and she reached out and placed it against her lower abdomen.

In silence he scanned through her side of the closet until he found a loose pair of sweatpants, then he grabbed one of his worn down exercise t-shirts. It was loose on him, and would definitely be too big for her. But the fabric was as comfortable as it could be. He also found some underwear for her.

He tossed it on the bed and found reached for a random t-shirt and pair of pants for himself.

Then he turned towards Emily, “Alright, you’re not any better.”

“Makes you say that?”

“You’re drenched in sweat, tears are still dripping from your eyes and you’re still curled up like that.”

“We just had sex.” She gritted out, “Of course I’m sweaty.”

“I’ve air-dried.” He shrugged as he started dressing, “You should have to… You have not.”

She curled a little tighter.

“Do you need help to get the clothes on?”

At first she didn’t make a move to answer, but she nodded after a few seconds.

“Alright, I’m gonna put the hipster and pants on your legs first.” Metal nodded as he started doing just what he had said he would. “Hey, remember to breathe every now and then…”

She nodded and took a breath.

“Hurts really bad, don’t it?” he winced in sympathy as he pulled the leg-wear up as far as it would go in the position she was in.

She nodded.

“Okay if I try to roll you over to your opposite side?”

She nodded a little.

He did and pulled her sweatpants the rest of the way up. “What do you say? Skip the bra and just go for the t-shirt?”

She nodded, and he almost thanked her. He definitely knew how to open and close those small hatches on bras, but he imagined it would be hard to get one on her the way she was laying.

“So, the pain… Is it worse if you get pressure against your stomach?”

She shrugged, then nodded a bit.

“-And you’re sure you don’t want me to call an ambulance?” he repeated his earlier question, “It’s been ten minutes at least now. Doesn’t look like it’s any better…”

“No. I don’t need an ambulance.”

“Okay.” Metal sighed as he shook the t-shirt out, “Gonna put the t-shirt on now…”

* * * 

“Now, we’re set to go…” Metal nodded to himself as he checked that he had his car keys, the keys to his apartment, his phone, and hers, and everything else they might need. Including a plastic bag in case she felt nauseous along the way, “You don’t exactly look like you’re able to walk on your own tonight.”

“No, I can…” she claimed. He had helped her into a sitting position already, so she just tried to get to her feet. Not that she really had a chance. She let go of a sharp gasp and curled back in on herself.

“Yeah, I see that…” He rolled his eyes a little. “I’m gonna lift you, okay…”

“No, I’m too heavy…”

“Bullshit.” he sighed as he slipped one arm under her knees and the other behind her back, “Left arm around my neck, alright?”

She placed her arm where he requested, still weakly arguing that she weighed too much for him to lift.

“You know we have an exercise where we have to carry our comrades, while wearing full gear and a big freaking rucksack, right? You certainly weigh less than the combination of a 100lbs backpack, bulletproof vest, long gun and Trent or Jase.”

“But your leg…”

“Hey, don’t think about it… I’m back above 90 percent, almost good enough to requalify.” He almost whispered back to her as he started walking towards the door.


	38. Emergency room

He didn’t really recognize any of the nurses in the emergency room that night. Which was unusual, he had spent his fair share of time in that part of the building, either as the person who needed help for something, or as a bystander while one of his brothers got some medical attention.

Thankfully the nurse by the nurse’s station took one look at Emily and ushered them towards a room with a bed.

“What happened?” the nurse asked as Metal placed Emily on the bed. Emily was reduced to exhausted whimpering and grimaces.

The pain seemed to have intensified over the ride to the hospital.

“We,,,” he wondered if it was right of him to go for full disclosure straight away, but eventually landed on that it might play a part in how the nurse would handle the situation, “We had sex. She got this sharp, stabbing or cramping pain low down in the right side of her stomach. I thought appendix, but she says she had it removed as a kid. She probably has endometriosis, but hasn’t got a diagnosis. And it looks like she’s in more pain now than when we left home. -And she threw up on the way over here.”

“Okay…” the nurse nodded a little, “I might need you to repeat most of that soon, let me just take some vital signs and find a doctor.”

“She’s tough, I’ve never seen her in this much pain.” Metal looked down at the nurse, “I’m worried, there’s got to be something really wrong.”

“We’ll try to figure out of it.” The nurse said as she pulled Emily’s sleeve up in order to place the blood pressure cuff, “Is there any chance she might be pregnant?”

“She’s on birth control, so not that likely.” Metal shrugged as he stepped around to Emily’s other side and placed a hand on her shoulder, “She just started a stretch on double dosages, because she’s supposed to travel overseas for work.”

“What does she do for a living?” the nurse asked as she placed a small device on a finger on Emily’s opposite hand.

“She’s a nurse.” Metal answered, “Works at the hospital on the other side of the city.”

The nurse nodded a little, “-And somewhere overseas?”

Metal nodded, “The hospital has a sister hospital in Afghanistan. She kinda does tours there, a few months at the time, because her GP will prescribe her double birth control while she’s there, and she gets relief from period pain and stuff we think is related to endometriosis.”

The nurse nodded as she wrote down the bloodpressure, respirations, sats and pulse, Then she pulled an ear-thermometer off the BP-trolley and measured Emily’s temperature.

“We’ll have to take her temp later in another way later, but for now this is a good indication…” the nurse shrugged a little as the thermometer beeped. “Temp looks good.”

Metal nodded a little, “Can you get that doctor of yours to get her something for the pain, I can’t stand seeing her like this.”

The nurse took another look at Emily, “I’ll be sure to let him know she needs something.”

Metal nodded, “Thank you.”

* * *

The nurse came back a few minutes later with some forms and a doctor in tow.

“Hello, I’m doct-” the doctor cut himself off, “Full Metal, been a long time.”

“Hey doctor Andrews.” Metal nodded quickly before he pointed to Emily, “Please help Emily.”

Dr. Andrews nodded, “Hannah told me this was a case of lower abdominal pain, right?”

Metal nodded.

“She’s had her appendix removed and is probably not pregnant?”

Metal nodded again, “As a kid, and she’s on birth control.”

“We’re gonna do a quick ultrasound, and run a few quick tests to rule out pregnancy anyway.” Andrews nodded, “That being said, I think the reward for administering morphine is going to be greater than the potential risk, if Emily turns out to be pregnant.”

Metal nodded a little.

Then Andrews turned to the nurse who had guided them to the room, “Start with 5mg of morphine, IV. We’ll see how she responds to that.”

“5mg IV morphine…” the nurse nodded and headed out, “On it.”

“And excuse me Emily, I forgot to introduce myself.” Dr. Andrews apologized as he stepped closer, “I’m James Andrews. I’m one of the doctors here.”

“Fuck off.”

Metal couldn’t help himself, a short laugh escaped him, “I’m gonna go ahead and claim that’s the pain talking. She’s usually the sweetest woman you’d ever meet.”

“No worries.” Andrews nodded, “I get it.”

Metal nodded a little, he knew he personally had said way worse things to Andrews. Especially the one time Andrews ended up being the one to pick out half a shattered window from his left shoulder.

“Emily, would you like Metal, Scott, to stay or go?”

“Stay.” She gritted out, “Should be my emergency contact. Haven’t updated yet.”

“Would you like us to update that?”

Emily nodded.

“Okay, then we’ll do that.” Andrews nodded, “I’ll see to it personally once you guys are done with those forms.”

Metal nodded and looked at the form, and started filling in the stuff he already knew.

* * *

The five milligrams of morphine showed little to no effect, after another five, she was still in a lot of pain, but able to not curl up in a ball the entire time.

And the staff got the tests they needed.

Dr. Andrews started the ultrasound, and not too long after he sighed a little. “Alright, Emily… I think I see the reason you’re in so much pain right now. We’re going to have to perform a surgery, your right ovary looks a bit swollen, that can suggest ovary torsion.”

Emily nodded a little. “Makes sense…”

“So it’s good we came here?” Metal looked from the doctor, to Emily, and back.

Andrews nodded, “Definitely the right call to come here.”

Metal nodded a little and gave Emily’s shoulder a squeeze.

“Now, one of you mentioned something about endometriosis.”

Emily nodded, “I probably have it. Undiagnosed. Can’t seem to convince my GP I need a laparoscopy to get it diagnosed, or ruled out.”

“Okay.” Andrews nodded, “I have a bit of experience with it, not as a doctor, but as a husband. If the surgeon find something which could be endo… What do you want us to do? Should they take a biopsy and ablate what they find, or just take a biopsy and leave it as it is then refer you to an endometriosis specialist who does excision?”

“Biopsy and wait.” Emily nodded, “I’d rather wait a bit more and get excision. -Preferrably by a Nook specialist.”

Dr. Andrews nodded. “I’ve heard a lot of good about those. I’ll let the surgeon know.”


	39. Research

Metal couldn’t remember the last time he had been as nervous sitting in a waiting room. Dr. Andrews had ensured him as far as surgeries go, it was a safe one. And that if it proved to be a twisted ovary, they probably caught it early enough for there to not be any lasting damage done.

But he still felt every bit as nervous as when his brothers had been really bad off in the past, maybe even more.

He almost felt sick to his stomach.

They hadn’t told him how long it would or could take. So he figured it was best he occupied himself with something. But then again, there wasn’t all that much to do in a hospital waiting room.

Figuring he could do something he should have done months ago, he pulled out his phone, opened google and typed; Endometriosis.

First he just wanted a better general understanding. He knew how Emily struggled, but he wanted to know more in case she had symptoms she hadn’t noticed as symptoms yet. The typical ‘I’ve always been like this, I thought it was normal’-stuff.

Then, he googled Nook and Endometriosis together, and read through large parts of the website he found that way.

Then he read patient stories, and then he fell down a rabbit hole as he found a reddit society dedicated to endometriosis. People with endo, and their significant others shared what reminded him more of war-stories than something about a medical condition.

The one thing that stood out to him was how hard it seemed to actually get a diagnosis. He was pretty sure he had read through a dozen entries which described unsuccessful trips to the doctor’s office, begging to be taken seriously, begging to get laparoscopies done, only to be sent away with discouraging words that it’s probably just a bad period or something like that.

He hated how similar it all was. How similar it was to what Emily had told him she had gone through.

He read of husbands and boyfriends, and girlfriends, on the same quest as he was on. Trying to figure out their significant other’s condition, trying to be as supportive as they could be. Trying to understand.

He read of horror stories like the one he felt they were right in the middle of. But theirs wasn’t the bloodiest by far. He was thankful for that. He couldn’t imagine how scared he would have been if she had been bleeding a lot on top of all the pain.

He read of couples struggling to get pregnant, even with all the help available. And he read a few sunshine stories where someone finally had a child, some even after they were told they wouldn’t be able to.

He read of those who FINALLY had their diagnosis. He could read how relieved they were to finally had a proper diagnosis to point to as the reason for all their symptoms. He read of people who didn’t have anything show up on the imaging, ultrasound or MRI, but had stage four endometriosis when they finally had the exploratory surgery. He read of lower stages with crippling pain, and people with stage four who didn’t have any pain and only found out because they had to have a random surgery for something else, or during some fertility work-up because they couldn’t get pregnant.

The more he read, the more it hurt. That many women, trans men and other non-binary people not being heard when they voice their health concerns to professionals, and the way friends and family don’t listen and believe them. The more he read, the angrier he got.

* * *

He had definitely lost track of time when a nurse came to inform him the surgery was over, it had gone according to the plan, and that Emily was transferred to the gynecology ward and that he could see her now.

He thanked her, and asked for directions.

“Third floor, C-wing.”

He nodded, “Third floor, C-wing. Got it.”


	40. Post-op

“Hey…” he almost whispered as he walked over to her bed, “How are you feeling?”

She frowned, “My shoulder hurt…”

He nodded a little and pulled a chair over next to her bed, “Air-pains… Those suck.”

“You know about them?”

“Was stabbed once.” He shrugged, “They inflate you the same way. You can get the same air-pains. Not fun…”

She nodded a little.

“How are you feeling, sans the shoulder pain?”

“Okay…” she yawned, “A little tired and drugged up, I think…”

He nodded and leaned on the railing of her bed, his right hand draped over it and holding hers.

She smiled a little as she noticed it, “Do you know if they found something?”

“I don’t know.” He shook his head, “I don’t think the surgeon’s been by yet.”

“I hope they found something.”

Metal felt himself nodding along, “If you hope so, I hope so too…”

* * *

There was a knock at the door to the hospital room, and a man in a white coat walked in.

“Hello, I’m doctor Alexander Kolev. I’m the surgeon who performed the surgery on you, I don’t know if you recognize me from before the surgery?”

Emily nodded a little, “Yeah, I remember. -I think.”

Alexander nodded and looked towards Metal, with a slightly questioning look.

Emily recognized it even though she still was a little groggy from the anesthesia, Metal looked and was a bit older than her, and one of the most embarrassing things she knew of was to just assume who someone was to the patient and be entirely wrong. The classic ‘Oh, you’re here with your mother, that’s kind of you’ and the patient looking disgruntled and revealing that it’s the wife, not mother. -or some other combination of that. “Oh, this is my boyfriend, I want him here. Not trusting my own brain yet.”

“Oh, okay.” The doctor nodded.

“Hey, I’m… Scott.” Full Metal stood up and gave a quick wave of his hand.

“Hello.” Alexander nodded in return, “Let’s get straight to it. Alright?”

Both Emily and Metal nodded.

“The surgery went very well. We saw exactly what the ultrasound Dr. Andrews took suggested, and were able to untwist the ovary, and restore blood flow to it. It was still viable, so you still have both your ovaries.”

“That’s good.” Emily smiled.

The doctor nodded, “Now, onto the concern you mentioned in the ER…”

Metal felt Emily squeeze his hand, he squeezed back reassuringly.

“We still have to wait for the biopsy result to confirm it a hundred percent, but we found what looks like two medium sized endometriomas, and a lot of spots which looked like DIE, deep infiltrating endometriosis. Best way I can think to describe it is all over. No wonder if you’ve been in pain.”

Metal gave her hand another little squeeze before he cleared his voice and looked towards the doctor. “Actually, isn’t it like… The stage and the symptoms doesn’t always line up. A person with stage one could be in massive amounts of pain, while there are stage four sufferers who have basically no pain? Just wanna make sure you don’t go dismissing someone’s pain if they end up having minimal endometriosis later.”

“Aw, Metal…” Emily smiled at him, and brushed her thumb over the back of his hand, “You read up on it?”

Metal gave a quick nod, “That’s one of the most insufferable waiting rooms I’ve been in, so yeah. Had to occupy myself.”

The doctor nodded hesitantly, “I might have read something like that, long ago. I’ll make sure to double check it.”

Metal nodded a little before he focused back on Emily.

The doctor cleared his voice a little, as if to wash away the previous half-minute of the conversation, “My team did as you requested. We saw the endometriosis, took a couple of biopsies of the different presentations, and left it.”

Emily nodded, “Good.”

“Would you like us to contact a specialist, or do you want to go through your GP?”

“I think it would go faster if you handled it. My GP isn’t… Knows next to nothing about female reproductive diseases.”

The doctor nodded.

“Do you know anything about if I’m fertile or not?” Emily shot in, after a few seconds of silence.

“Since we only did biopsies of the tissue, we didn’t take a closer look to check for blockages of your tubes or anything, I can’t confirm or deny anything. But there’s not any eye-catching obvious reasons you wouldn’t be able to get pregnant. The endometriosis in itself might make it difficult, but I wouldn’t rule out the chance based on what I saw and the bloodwork you had done earlier. I can’t promise anything though.”

Emily nodded, “Well, there might be a chance at least.”

Metal let his free hand brush over her head, he was almost certain his heart was about to liquify even though he knew the doctor’s words were almost just guesswork with a lot of uncertainty around whether they would be able to have kids or not.

* * *

“You were right…” Metal offered up a sideways smirk after the doctor had left them once again, “How does it feel?”

She shrugged a little, “Feels weird. I’m kinda happy, but I know I shouldn’t be.”

“Relieved?”

“Yeah.” She nodded, “I shouldn’t be, right?”

Metal shrugged a little, “You’ve been in pain since you basically was a kid. Finally knowing there’s a reason for it, to be able to point to a diagnosis, I would think that’s a normal reaction.”

“Yeah?”

Metal nodded, “Plus, I might’ve spent way too much time on this forum page or whatever… Lots of those who were recently diagnosed felt something like that.”

“Yeah? There’s forum pages for it? Isn’t that some early 2000’s thing.”

“My internet lingo hasn’t really been updated since that time.” Metal chuckled, “Think it was called Reddit or something like that.”

Emily grinned as well, “Maybe I should search Reddit for that as well…”

Metal shrugged a little, “You would definitely be able to ‘talk’ with others going through the same thing.”

She shrugged a little, “True.”

He brought her hand up and placed a kiss on the back of it.

“Want to know what I was most scared of?” Emily asked after almost a minute of silence.

He nodded a little.

“I was scared he wouldn’t find anything other than that twisted ovary.” She didn’t meet his eyes.

“Well, he definitely found something.” Metal shrugged.

“They did…” She nodded and yawned, “I can’t wait to go home.”

He chuckled, “Well, I think they might want to keep you here for a little while. But I can’t wait to have you home either.”

She smiled a little, and yawned once more.

“I think you might need a nap.” He winked, “Want me to come back later?”

She shrugged a little, “Not today… I think I’ll just sleep a lot. And I’ve got something to read on my phone if I’m bored.”

“Tomorrow then?”

“Please.” She nodded.”

He nodded as well, “Be kind to the nurses, alright? They’re probably not as great as you are.”

She chuckled a bit, “Ow… Laughing is still off limits.”

“Sorry.” He frowned, ”Hope you feel better soon.”

“I will.” She nodded, “Go home, get some sleep. You need it as well.”

He nodded a little, “You know, I’m a SEAL, I can sleep anywhere. Could sleep in this chair if I needed to.”

“Yeah, but I’d rather know that you’re sleeping in a comfortable bed than having you here in a chair, especially when I know I’m fine.”

He nodded a little and got up and placed a kiss on her forehead, “Love you.”

“Love you back.”


	41. SEVEN MONTHS LATER

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I was really not sure about what with this story after that last chapter. I mean, I could’ve made a chapter of Metal taking care of her once she came back home. I could’ve made a chapter about her telling her family, or his sister about the diagnosis she finally had. I contemplated giving her a really bad flare…   
> In the end, I knew it was fully possible to write all that and have it come out good. But it just wasn’t what I wanted to write. And honestly, I want to skip ahead again. Say about seven months or so…   
> So here’s a recap of what has probably happened during that time.  
> -Em has had her excision (Because I really didn’t care about writing that, it would basically be a copy-paste like thing from the post-op chap.   
> -Bravo team is back home, and no one has any injuries from the deployment.   
> -Metal has been working out religiously, and has seen even more progress.

[about seven months later]

“What’s gotten into you lately?” Trent asked as he stood bent over heaving for air, “A few months ago I had no trouble outrunning you…”

Metal chuckled as he jogged in place, “Bet I’ll win if we run to the shore.”

“Of course you’ll win…” Trent chuckled, “I’d be dead halfway there… But I repeat, what in the fresh hell has gotten into you?”

Metal stopped bouncing from foot to foot and shrugged a little.

“Come on, gotta be something.”

Metal shrugged again, “If you race me to the shore and win, I might tell you.”

“Gimme a chance to catch my breath first, alright?”

Metal smirked, “Alright. But you better win, you want to hear this.”

“Anyone ever tell you, you’re the biggest tease ever?” Trent chuckled and straightened up, intertwining his fingers at the top of his head, still breathing heavily.

Metal just grinned in return and wiped away some sweat.

A couple of minutes later they had agreed on what was gonna be their finish line by the shore, and started running again.

* * *

Trent had realized he was about to lose when they were halfway there. He felt like roadkill. He wanted to blame some cold or something he hadn’t realized he had yet, but deep down he knew the reason Metal was winning was because he was the master of comebacks. This one being no different from the previous comebacks of his career. He had always managed to come back better than ever before.

* * *

The last few hundred yards of the run, he hadn’t even seen Metal. He had lost him right around Chicho’s pizza, and hadn’t seen him again before he saw him standing a few yards away from the Neptune statue they had deemed their finish line.

“Hey, bro…” Metal called as Trent rounded the corner, “You’ve still got a chance to win.”

“Don’t tell me…” Trent asked when he got a little closer so he didn’t have to shout, “Win the race back? If that’s it, I might start swinging.”

“Nope.” Metal shrugged, “Just touch the base of the statue.”

“You’re kidding? Right?” Trent felt like he was about to puke and let his pace slow from exhausted jog and down to a normal walking pace.

Metal shook his head, so Trent walked over and touched the base of the statue.

“For real?”

“Yup, you won.” Metal grinned.

“Want to tell me what has turned you into the energizer bunny this last week? You’ve been doing good for a while now, but this last week has been like… Like you never were injured at all.”

Metal chuckled a bit as he stepped over to the railing separating the walking path from the beach, “Just got some good news.”

“Yeah?” Trent raised an eyebrow, “If this mean’s you requalified, I won’t be surprised.”

“No, better.” Metal took a deep breath, his whole face glowing with joy. “But I’m up for the test next week.”

“You’ll definitely ace it.” Trent chuckled as he walked over and leaned against the railing next to Metal.

“-You know how… How Em and I have been trying for a baby since her last operation.”

Trent leaned away to get a better view of Metal, “You’re…”

“Almost three months now.” Metal beamed, “We’re not ready to announce it to everyone yet, but… Figured my best buddy should know.”

Trent pushed off the railing and moved the few feet it took to get close enough to hug Metal, “Congrats man!”

“Thanks.” Metal grinned as Trent stepped back to where he had been leaning earlier.

“So, what was the moment which turned you into the energizer bunny? Almost three months, you’ve probably known it for more than a week then…”

Metal nodded, the same proud smile stuck on his face.

“Gonna tell me or not?” Trent jabbed his elbow at Metal.

Metal nodded. “Sonogram.”

“You finally saw the baby?”

“Finally saw them.” Metal nodded.

“Wait.” Trent leaned forward a bit, “Did you just say…”

“Plural, yeah.” Metal chuckled, “We’re having twins.”

“For real?”

Metal nodded, “Can you believe it?”

“My brain is using a hot minute to process it.” Trent chuckled, “Man, that’s… Awesome. You know if it’s boys or girls yet? Or one of each?”

Metal shook his head, “No. Still too early. But they looked like they were doing well. They’re gonna follow Em up even closer now. She was gonna have a few extra appointments due to the endometriosis thing, but now that we know it’s twins, it’s gonna be even more.”

Trent nodded, “How’s she feeling?”

“So far, really good.” Metal chuckled, “So we’re hoping she’ll have an easy pregnancy.”

“I hope so too…” Trent nodded, “Both of you deserve that.”

Metal chuckled a bit, “I wouldn’t complain if everything went as smooth as possible for once.”

“Man, that’s literally the best news I’ve heard all year…” Trent reflected with a smile.

Metal nodded and winked, “Told you that you had to win this race…” 

Trent chuckled, then nodded.

“Bro, I have no idea how we’re gonna survive having twins…” Metal chuckled and kicked at the fuse between the boardwalk and the end the railing was on, “I mean, knowing my luck… We’re gonna have young Scott Carter squared.”

Trent chuckled at the thought, “Good thing your parents are fairly young. And have experience with kids being high and low and all over.”

Metal chuckled, “My sister has this theory. They’re going to learn to walk way too soon, like when they’re only ten months or so… And then they are going to hate sitting in a buggy from that point on, and they are going to realize that if they run off in different directions, it’ll take us longer to catch them.”

Trent chuckled, “I support that theory.”

Metal nodded as well, “I wouldn’t be surprised. Mom and dad rarely knew exactly where I was. I’m gonna get payback.”

“-Let’s hope for everyone’s sake they’re more like Emily than you then…”

Metal nodded, “I imagine things would be a lot easier if that how it turns out.”

“So, what do you hope it is? Boys? Girls? One of each?”

Metal shrugged, “As long as they’re healthy, I don’t really care. But imagine me being the dad of two girls, oh boy…”

Trent almost collapsed laughing at the thought. “I think I just had a vision of how that would be…”

Metal chuckled, “Yeah?”

“Curfew by 8 p.m.. -Even late in their teens.” Trent started, “If you hear ANY rumor about a date, you’re probably going to be cleaning weapons by the kitchen table. You’ll definitely put the fear of GOD into some poor innocent teenage guy or two. Oh, and you’ll be more comfortable being shot at than with the thought that they’re actually gonna date.”

Metal nodded, “I can’t find any lies in that.”

Trent chuckled, “You’ll be a good dad though.”

“You think?”

Trent nodded.

“Thanks.”

“It’s just the truth.” Trent shrugged.


	42. Baby bump

“I don’t think we can keep it secret that much longer…” Emily thought out loud as she studied herself in the mirror after a shower, “Three months with twins, I’m growing each day…”

Metal grinned as he also stepped out of the shower, “Yeah, you’re definitely pregnant. But those oversized hoodies you’ve been loving lately is kinda still hiding it.”

She chuckled as she let her hands glide over her rounding belly, “Yeah…”

“That being said, you really suit more, -formfitting clothes.” Metal smirked as he stepped over and placed a kiss on top of her head, “You should only know how hot you are in a tanktop and pajama pants nowadays.”

Emily chuckled, “Yeah?”

Metal nodded, “You really suit being pregnant.”

She smiled up at him and placed a kiss on his bare chest. “-I might have to go clothes shopping soon… I have no pants which will button comfortably…”

Metal nodded a little, “You want me to tag along, or do you want one of your girls join?”

“I know you hate shopping…”

Metal shrugged and nodded.

“I’ll ask some of my girls…” she chuckled, then she glanced down at her belly pressed against him, “Oh dear… Just imagine how bit I’ll be by the time these two are ready to come out….”

Metal chuckled nervously, “Yeah, sorry about that.”


	43. Back at it

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry I've been MIA. It happens sometimes.

He requalified on his first attempt, and less than a week later he was ready for his first spin-up after the injury.

He was nervous. He couldn’t remember the last time he had felt like this before a spin-up.

“You look jittery…” Sonny pointed out as he sat down near him.

“You blame me? I wasn’t supposed to make it back.” Metal shook his head, “The medical discharge papers were being written, just not signed.”

“Well, I’m pretty sure I said something along the lines of ‘if anyone’s going to make it back, it’s you…”

Metal nodded a little, “Yeah, guess you said something along those lines…”

“Just another Tuesday….” Sonny drawled as he leaned back.

“-It’s Sunday you permanently concussed fool.”

“I know…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And sorry for this tiny, tiny chapter.   
> I wish it could be longer, but I just... Couldn't.   
> That also happens sometimes.


	44. Returning home

It was 2 a.m. by the time he made it back home after the debrief and all. He had grabbed a shower before driving back home.

He unlocked the door and headed towards the bedroom. He was tired enough to fall asleep on his feet.

He dropped his bag next to the closet, undressed real quick and laid down on his side of the bed. He hadn’t really settled before Emily turned around and wrapped an arm across his chest.

“You’re home…” she whispered sleepily.

“Yeah.” He smiled into the dark.

“Are you alright?”

“Sure am.” He nodded.

“How was it, being back?”

“Felt good.” He admitted, “But I kept missing you. How have you been?”

“Worried.” She sighed, “Good to have you home.”

He nodded and placed a kiss on top of her head, “Good to be home.”

She let her right leg glide up on top of his right leg and she leaned a little closer so her belly was pressed up against his side.

“And our two rascals?” he let one hand brush up against her, “Have they treated you alright?”

“They’ve been good to me…” she nodded, “Did everyone make it back okay?”

“We all did.” He nodded.

“Glad to hear that.”


	45. Deployment

A month or two later, it was deployment time.

And he barely recognized himself. Normally, he looked forward to deployments. Deployments held its own kind of simplicity, which he appreciated.

Less than two weeks into the deployment, he started counting down the days until he was back home. The most important part of his week changed from the slow evenings where they all just hung out, to the video calls he had with Emily.

He loved getting updates on how her pregnancy was going. How she was feeling, how much she had grown and if she’d had any appointments.

* * *

“You talking with Emily?” Trent asked once he stepped inside the barracks.

“Yeah, I’m talking with Em.” Metal grinned back over the screen.

Trent almost jogged around the screen and gave a wave.

“Hey there Trent” Emily grinned as Trent leaned one elbow against Metal’s shoulder, “I need intel, is Metal behaving?”

“Still don’t know what you’ve done to him…” Trent chuckled, “But yeah, he’s actually being a good boy.”

Metal scoffed and pushed Trent’s elbow off his shoulder, “Get off me…”

Emily chuckled at the other side of the world.

“Nah, we’re making sure he’s not doing something ridiculously stupid.” Trent winked at her, “How are his offsprings treating you? You staying comfortable?”

“I have to wear scrubs two sizes larger than before.” Emily rolled her eyes a little, “And maternity wear is a blessing. I can’t imagine how big I’ll be by the time these two are ready to come out. Other than that, I’m good. Just feel like a pregnant hippo.”

Metal smiled, “Wrong species.”

“I definitely feel like one.” Emily chuckled.

“Looks good on you.” Trent offered up, before slapping Metal’s shoulder, “We’ve got a briefing in 15. Thought I’d come by to tell you.”

Metal nodded and thanked Trent, as Trent started making his way towards the door again.

“So, guess we better round this up then…” Emily sighed as she studied Metal on her screen.

“I guess.” He nodded in return, “It’s possible that I won’t be back on base for next week’s videocall.”

She nodded a little.

“I’ll send you an email when we’re back…” he winked.

“Thank you.”

He nodded, “I love you.”

“You too…” she winked back.

They sat in silence, just studying each other until Trent opened the door a few minutes later, “Hey brother… Time to go!”

“Gotcha!” Metal nodded, then he winked at Emily, “I really, really love you Em. Talk to you later.”

“I love you too, a lot.” She smiled, “Looking forward to talk to you again.”


End file.
